PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Paul Clements

Also known as Paul C. Clements

Paul Clements is a software engineer and researcher in software architecture and software product line engineering. He earned a computer sciences PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and came to Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute in 1994, after working as a computer scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, where he took part in and eventually led the Software Cost Reduction project on the Navy's A-7E avionics software. Over 17 years at the SEI he coauthored Software Architecture in Practice, Evaluating Software Architectures and Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns. In 2011 he became Vice President of Customer Success at BigLever Software, and in 2019 he gave a plenary talk on managing variation in product line engineering at ICSE. BigLever announced in December 2021 that he was retiring.

Badges

Timeline

  1. By 1994

    Avionics software at the NRL

    Before 1994, he is a computer scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, applying software engineering principles to real-time embedded systems. There he takes part in, and eventually leads, the Software Cost Reduction (A-7) project, which redesigns and reimplements the avionics software for the Navy's A-7E aircraft.

  2. 1994

    A Texas PhD and the SEI

    In 1994, he receives a Ph.D. in computer sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and comes to Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute. At the SEI he leads or co-leads projects in software product-line engineering and in software architecture documentation and analysis.

  3. 1998–2003

    Books on architecture and product lines

    He coauthors Software Architecture in Practice in 1998 (second edition in 2003), Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case Studies in 2001, and Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns in 2001. He also coauthors and edits Constructing Superior Software, published in 1999.

  4. 2005–2006

    Visiting faculty in Mumbai

    In 2005 and 2006, he spends a year as a visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He is also a founding member of the IFIP Working Group on Software Architecture (WG2.10).

  5. 2011

    Joining BigLever as vice president

    After 17 years at the SEI, he is appointed Vice President of Customer Success at BigLever Software in 2011. BigLever focuses on product line engineering, and his role is to help customers apply product line engineering approaches and to keep publishing articles and giving talks.

  6. May 2019

    A plenary talk at ICSE

    In May 2019, he gives the plenary talk "Managing Variation: An Industrial Perspective on Product Line Engineering" at ICSE 2019. The talk surveys techniques for building a family of similar systems, from the earliest to the most up to date, and how companies apply product line engineering today.

  7. December 2021

    Retirement from BigLever

    BigLever announces in December 2021 that Randy Pitz, formerly of Boeing, joins its executive team as Vice President of Customer Success. Pitz replaces Clements, who is retiring.

Career

  1. From 2011BigLever SoftwareVice President of Customer Success
  2. 2005–2006IIT BombayVisiting faculty
  3. From 1994Carnegie Mellon University
  4. Naval Research LaboratoryComputer Scientist

Education

  1. 1994University of Texas at AustinPh.D.

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Paul Clements yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Paul Clements | InformIT informit.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Open lecture of Paul Clements – one of the leaders in Software Architectures – European Software Institute esicenter.bg. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. James Ivers | InformIT informit.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Paul Clements appointed Vice President of BigLever - InfoQ infoq.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Managing Variation: An Industrial Perspective on Product Line Engineering (ICSE 2019 - Plenary Sessions) - International Conference on Software Engineering 2019 in Montreal, Canada 2019.icse-conferences.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. BigLever Names PLE Guru Randy Pitz as Vice President Customer Success - BigLever Software, Inc. biglever.com. Checked 22 October 2026.