Charles Stack

The JavaBean component model presents entirely new ways of developing software. Once a component interface is specified, the actual implementation can be accomplished by another programmer down the hall, across the country or anywhere in the world. This allows outsourcing of software development at the component level. At Flashline we're publicly testing a new service called Beans by Design, which allows companies to post requests for specified JavaBeans that are then bid on by developers. This service is sort of a cross between an eBay auction and a Match.com dating service. Using a double-blind bidding system, we help match developers with companies seeking component development: "SWD seeks EJB for software application!" A component outsourcing service is a logical outgrowth of the general trend toward outsourcing software development. Outsourcing information techn... (more)

Focus on the "A" in SOA

For decades, IT professionals have put up with the headaches of managing a complex and rigid enterprise architecture that has become a Petri dish for the too-familiar misalignment between IT and the business. Enter service-oriented architecture (SOA), which promises to create applications composed of modular software components that are interconnected through well-defined, open Web service standards. Just as companies moved from mainframe to client-server, so must IT move from monolithic applications to a matrix of loosely coupled Web services that enable the composition and re... (more)

Effective Web Services

Reusable software components - when properly built, promoted, and tracked - deliver an enormously productive alternative to traditional "built-from-scratch" application development. The benefits are real, tangible, and ultimately reflected in the bottom line for those organizations with the wisdom to recognize software reuse as an adaptation of the same concept that made Henry Ford famous and very, very rich. Web services, when held to the same standards of construction, promotion, and tracking, offer the same benefits. The advantages of component-based development (CBD) apply ... (more)