Allen Holub has been writing software since dinosaurs roamed the earth, starting in high school on an IBM 360/65 enthroned in its air-conditioned glass-walled room and fed punch cards by white-clad priests. Since then, he's written two operating systems and several compilers and contributed to several commercial and open-source products, all without punch cards. He's been a CTO for early-stage startups and a Principal Architect for a medium-sized one. He's authored a gazillion articles and a dozen books, some used as texts at U.C. Berkeley, MIT, Cal Tech, and IIT. He was a contributing editor at Dr. Dobb’s Journal and JavaWorld.

Allen has an international reputation in practical software development processes and software architecture. He has worked as an independent consultant for decades, helping companies become more effective at writing software and working with all levels of the organization, from the CEO to sitting down and mobbing with the teams. He also teaches classes on software architecture and effective development practices. He was the Chan-Norris Distinguished (no less) Professor of Computer Science at Mills College.

Allen plays the piano, rides a bicycle, and flies small airplanes, but not at the same time.

Warm up with his conversation about software with Uncle Bob: A Path to Better Programming • Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin & Allen Holub