James A. Highsmith III (born 1945) is an American software engineer and author of books in the field of software development methodology. He is the creator of Adaptive Software Development, described in his 1999 book "Adaptive Software Development", and winner of the 2000 Jolt Award, and the Stevens Award in 2005. Highsmith was one of the 17 original signatories of the Agile Manifesto, the founding document for agile software development.