Interview: Francesco Marchioni, Author of JBoss AS 5 Development

Francesco Marchioni is the author of JBoss AS 5 Development which is a complete guide for JBoss developers covering everything from basic installation to creating, debugging, and securing Java EE applications on this popular, award-winning JBoss application server.

Francesco is a software architect currently working for an Italian company based in Rome. He took his first steps in Java in 1997 and joined the JBoss Community a few years later when the application server was running the release 2.X.

He has spent many years as a software consultant; however, in the past 5 years he has started authoring technical articles for OReilly Media.

His blog can be found at: http://www.mastertheboss.com

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Francesco: This was my first experience as an author and, I'm glad to say, it's an important milestone in my working career. All the staff I've been working with was quite collaborative and generous at providing advice. The interesting part of it was that I was recruited by the Acquisition Editor just when I realized it could be fun to write a book about JBoss application server. True Telepathy!

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Francesco: The amount of topics covered by the book is indeed consistent however I had less experience in a couple of the topics covered in the book so I had to do some lengthy research on those topics before writing them.

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed you personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Francesco: Well I managed to write this book during a critical moment of my life as my son Alessandro just turned two and anyone who has any experience with children, knows that two year olds need a lot of care and attention. However, with the help of my wife Linda, at least I was relieved from household duties and could still care for and spend time with my boy.

Packt: Did anything interesting happen during the writing of the book?
Francesco: Well, the most interesting thing was that I realized my book's external reviewer was Peter Johnson, former author of a book about JBoss. From a technical point of view our books are complementary- his one being focused primarily on the Administration and mine on development of JBoss AS applications. However I really appreciated his help in improving my book with needful tips- he's really professional guy.

Packt: How did Peter help you?
Francesco: Well, the first draft of the book needed quite a lot of changes. For example, the book was going to start with an immediate introduction to the changes in the 5.0 platform which was a bit too “aggressive” for inexperienced readers. He convinced me to change the order of chapters with a smoother outline. Also he managed to pickup a few typo/errors in the code that happened during the cut and paste from the eclipse Project. At the moment the errata section of the book is very small and I owe this to him.

Packt: How did Packt’s Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you throughout the writing process?
Francesco:The acquisition editors were really helpful at providing quick feedback, in particular when I decided, more than one time to change the outline of the book. Now, reading customer reviews that the book is well structured and flows quite well, I'm really thankful to the acquisition
editors for their patience!

Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?
Francesco: Well I was lucky that most of the time my job deadlines didn't overlap the most critical sections of the book- this only happened in November when I had to complete the last revisions at night. That was tough, however I just imagined that in one month all would be finished and Santa Claus would bring me a few nice surprises.

Packt: And did he?
Francesco: A few weeks after the book was published, I’ve got several mails from readers who appreciated the book and reported their reviews on Amazon. That was indeed a nice surprise.

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?
Francesco: Well, I happened to meet many members of the JBoss community, online and in person. I expect this to help in my career.

Packt: So, how did this help your career?
Francesco: From one point of view, this is an important achievement in one’s career, as they are recognized as an expert in a particular technology. Also, being an active part of a community helps you to anticipate the changes that inevitably happen.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Francesco: I’d like to stress the importance of setting a good outline where all chapters are well balanced as it concerns the amount of information covered. This will make it easier to distribute your effort as a writer and will make it easier to follow for readers.

Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?
Francesco: I’ve been quite satisfied with this experience from all points of view. While this doesn’t mean it’s a piece of cake, I can tell you that your efforts will definitively be repaid.

Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?
Francesco: Our company has been recently acquired by Ericsson so my current duty is porting a vendor enterprise application to…you guessed it....the JBoss application server.

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