Dr
Alan Cameron Wills has been a consultant and trainer in object design since 1992,
working with clients in a wide variety of fields in Europe and the USA, to whom
he brings over a quarter of a century's experience in computing. He is well known
in the UK and internationally as an authority on object and component based development.
He takes a leading role in the promotion of good practice in the industry, writing
and presenting on design methods, taking part in the organization of conferences,
and supporting professional development programmes.
Alan
is author (with Desmond D'Souza) of Objects, Components,
and Frameworks in UML: the Catalysis Approach,
a significant work on object and component development,
published by Addison-Wesley in 1998. Many industry
commentators, including the Gartner group, the Butler
CBD Forum, have acclaimed Catalysis. Several tool
vendors support or are about to support it; and it
is in increasing use in a variety of large component
and high-integrity projects.
Alan's
original training in physics led him into telecoms
hardware design, from which he moved into software
and took an MSc in computing. He then worked on a
variety of industry/academic collaborations as a designer
of advanced software development tools. During that
time, he developed a strong awareness of the central
issues of object oriented design methods (in which
he gained a PhD), which he was able to elaborate in
subsequent work as an independent industrial consultant.
Consultancy
work has included mentoring, reviews, audits, and
mentoring in finance, commerce, GIS, telecoms and
manufacturing. Recent examples include leading a team
reviewing and advising a back-office project in Union
Bank of Switzerland. Leading a team auditing component
development in a major European leasing company. Leading
a design mentoring team in a Customer Relations Management
development. Training and advising a major Irish stockbroker,
and mentoring requirements analysis for a billing
system.
