Paul Allen

Paul Allen is Principal Web Services Strategist at CA and is widely recognized for his innovative work in component-based development (CBD), business-IT alignment, and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Mr. Allen's detailed knowledge combines with a uniquely practical understanding of the problems companies face as they apply new technologies in search of business value. His pragmatism stems from approximately 30 years' experience in the management and development of large-scale business systems. He was VP of Methods at Select Software Tools before joining Sterling Software (since acquired by CA) in April 1999 to lead its CBD practice. He has subsequently taken a leading role in developing CA's Service Oriented Solutions Approach (SOSA). His current focus of interest is on helping organizations transition to Web services and SOA.

Mr. Allen is a widely published author and former Editor of Cutter Consortium's Component Development Strategies. He is also a popular speaker at industry conferences worldwide and contributes a regular column to OTLand on Web services (http://www.ltt.de/MyLogOn/). His coauthored book Component Based Development for Enterprise Systems was one of the first and most practical descriptions of what is involved in building component-based applications. His last book, the critically acclaimed Realizing e-Business with Components, was published by Addison-Wesley in October 2000. He is currently working on a new book, Service Orientation, which is scheduled for publication next year.

Interview with Paul Allen

Are you excited about taking over the helm of CDS? Why?

As an enthusiastic reader of CDS for many years now I'm excited to be taking over the editorship from Paul Harmon. This gives me a great opportunity to engage readers by sharing my experiences and focusing in some depth on topics that I find fascinating. I have long appreciated Paul's wealth of knowledge and perceptive insights and wish him a long and happy retirement. I am very conscious of the high standards of editorship that readers will have enjoyed throughout his ten years at the helm and begin my first issue of a new era with a definite sense of humility. Incidentally I hope that Paul will, should he choose, contribute pieces from time to time.

What are the benefits of a publication like CDS?

There's a great deal of hype and over expectation surrounding Component software, especially in relation to e-business. Organizations continue to jump on the e-business bandwagon without understanding what they are getting into. The main benefit of CDS is that it cuts through the hype, providing concise and timely critical advice to its readership.

Who are the targeted readers?

The traditional readership is IT management, software architects and senior analysts and designers. At the same time e-business is calling for a closer relationship between those involved in business development and those required to support these initiatives within the company's information technology infrastructure. Equally therefore CDS is aimed at business strategists, business process engineers and business architects. More significantly, CDS is aimed at the new breeds of individual that are emerging, as the dividing lines between business and software grow increasingly blurred.

What do you hope to accomplish as editor?

As well as providing timely information on developments in Component technologies and standards Ill be paying particular attention to planning, analysis and design of e-business systems using component-based development (CBD). Just as e-business is more than a series web pages, so CBD is not just an approach to problem solving using software building blocks. It includes architectures, processes, modeling techniques, economic models and organizational guidelines, all of which are well placed to ease migration of large organizations to e-business. I would also like to encourage the readers to provide maximum feedback and, where possible, work with me in sharing their experiences with component technology.