Office Business Applications (OBAs) is a new development paradigm that leverages the features of the Office platform. This book provides a broad look at the different technologies you can use to build and deploy OBAs, and it represents a good introduction to this emerging area. It is also a good accompaniment to other books currently on the market, like 6 Microsoft Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Microsoft Press), in which each chapter provides an overview of an individual OBA; VSTO for Mere Mortals (Addison-Wesley Professional), which provides a comprehensive look at VSTO; and Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Microsoft Press), which provides a comprehensive look at SharePoint. This introductory chapter lays out the accepted foundation for OBAs—similar to our "sister" book 6 Microsoft Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint Server 2007—but it very quickly jumps into discussing individual technologies at a deeper level. So, without further adieu, let’s begin our journey on learning about OBAs.