I'm talking at the Enterprise Futures Forum on Tuesday 17th on strategies for adopting SOA and the Cloud. Here's some information on the conference and a 2 for 1 offer that the organisers have running at the moment:
We are addressing the latest issues:
· 1. With the flurry of recent acquisitions (eg BEA, Peoplesoft, SUN, (SeeBeyond & MySQL), Stellent, Siebel, iflex) Oracle has become a major software supplier for most local enterprises. As a local enterprise professional, it makes sense to stay up to date with their software capabilities and strategy – come along and see what Matt Wright, Bill Hicks and Cameron McPhee have to say.
· 2. National broadband will open up new possibilities. Things which were not possible or practical before suddenly become possible.
Find out when, where and how much bandwidth is planned to come on line.
· 3. Australia will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in early December. The resulting global agreement on emission reductions will most likely require businesses to monitor and curb their carbon emissions, and we in IT will be required to provide and modify systems for this. How are we going to do it?
· 4. SOA has been through the hype curve - find out where it really applies and how to go about it.
· 5. Hear all about how Google address the challenges of user apps, how you can take advantage of Google's technology when building your own. Did I mention the Wave demo and the surprise give-away to all attendees?...
Come for the whole day or half day – decide what is of most interest to you, and customise your day accordingly (www.gener8.com.au/ejaforum09)
Keynotes topics: Broadband initiative, Green IT, SOA, Google Wave
Stream Sessions: Business & Technical streams – 5 experts in each stream to take you into the future
Panel Discussions: Business & Technical sessions – 7 experts on each panel to answer your questions
Discussion Threads: Casual interactive afternoon sessions – Startups, Real SOA, Real Green IT and more – to get up close and personal with your preferred topics
Book by midday Friday and take advantage of the 2 for 1 offer!
Click here to register now!
In the presentation on "Challenging the Role of the Architect" I talked about the need for a team Wiki where the lower-level details of the system documentation should be published. Some people have asked for more information about this - what wiki do I recommend. This is a very intersting question because it is a little like asking 'what source code repository should I use?' in that the answer is quite clearly 'it depends'. Let me take a stab at a piece of logic though and we'll see if that helps:
If you are working with resonably recent version of .NET then the answer is actually pretty simple. In this case you will, of course, be using Visual Studio Team System for development and will be using the features and facilities to manage your project in Team Foundation Server. I'm hoping that you are anyway, because as I have said a few times there is no better tool for managing software projects than Team Foundation Server to the point where I recommend that even teams that are building using Java (or a derivative) use Team Foundation Server through a plug-in into Eclipse. But I digress and I can talk more about that another day.
Anyway, assuming that you are using TFS you'll note that TFS integrates nicely into SharePoint 2007 to provide a project portal. Given that this is the case the best option then in to include the Wiki as a part of that portal. Personally, I find the built-in Wiki functionality in SharePoint to be sufficient for this kind of documentation and it provides the easiest, and best integrated, solution. You could consider using a thrird party Wiki tool like Confluence from Atlassian to edit the Wiki and then surface it through SharePoint using the available plug-in from Atlassian .
If (heaven forbid) you aren't using TFS then you could just use Confluence. There are, of course, many open source options available but I must confess that I don't know them all that well. Check out what is available through CodePlex or your favourite reputable open source repository/community and review what other people have said before making a selection. I'd recommend that you consider the ability to export content to be an important part of the decision in case you outgrow your solution and need to move to another.
I've recieved a few questions from people along the lines of "I'm a Developer and I'm about to work as an Architect" or "I just got put in an Architect role and I'd like to know what I need to know to be a good Architect". This is obviously a big and complex question, and so I am writing a big and complex set of answers. Trouble is that this is taking me ages though and I know that everyone is waiting for something to start on, so I have pulled out a few things that I suggest that you start with and I'll add more detail along the way.
Firstly, there are a couple of books that I think capture the essence of Architecture as a part of the engineering disipline of software development:
- Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell
- Professional Software Development by Steve McConnell
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma
- The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks
Surprisingly I don't have a lot of other books on Architecture that I really, really, like. There are other books in related displines that I would recommend that any Architect should read and understand though, and if you have seen my talks in the area you'll know that I have a firm belief that Architecture is about much more than putting code or components together. So, I would also recommend the following as required reading:
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith
- The Power of Positive Confrontation: The Skills You Need to Know to Handle Conflicts at Work, at Home and in Life by Barbara Pachter
That will do for now. I'll post more information soon on this subject but the above pile of books should keep you busy for a while. 
Here's an interesting article by Peter Koen that refers extensively to the Virtualisation Maturity Model that Peter Richardson and I invented for Edition 18 of The Architecture Journal. Lots of fun to see that we are being quoted, even if I wasn't aware that the article existed until today: http://architects.dzone.com/articles/part-1-move-blue-cloud-save. It is quite a good read though, so I recommend you go and have a look.
At Tech.Ed is this year I spent most of the time talking about challenging the role of the Architect, but I did get some time to sit down with Darryl Chantry from Object and talk about another area that I've been spending a fair bit of time analysing of late - clould computing. In a wide ranging discussion we talked about a comparrision of the different cloud platforms, the issues for organisations chosing a platform and moving to the cloud and the role of the Architect in cloud. The video of the discussion is available from the Tech.Ed site here.
The talk for this year's Tech.Ed was 'Challenging the Role of Architect'. The talk is about the fundamental gap that exists between the approach and skills that Architect's commonly display and what is needed from them to effectively deliver projects. To do this I discuss the outcome of the late 10 years of CHAOS reports produced by the Standish Group and use this to point out just how badly we are doing as an industry. From here, and with a clear understanding of what a project actually is and how pure Agile is not a suitable approach for the development of projects in a way that meets the need of the business, unless the project is running in Fairyland (where cost and time don't matter). With a solid definition then of what is needed to deliver projects effectively it is then possible to proceed on and examine how an Architect can assist to ensure that projects are delivered successfully.
The talk was, interestingly, met by two types of feedback, which was expected - those that understood the big picture need for Architects to be jointly responsible for overall project delivery and those that saw that the role of the Architect as a senior developer and the project management and process aspects of the role as therefore not belonging. You know what camp I am in.
The deck is available from my SlideShare account here.
I've recieved a number of questions about the talk, and I'll attempt to answer these questions here so that everyone can see the answers.
I'm presenting in the Architecture Track at Tech.Ed Australia again, and maybe also Tech.Ed New Zealand for the first time. Here's what I was thinking of talking about:
Challenging the Role of the Architect
There are as many definitions of the role of the Architect as there are organisations, and current shifts in approaches like Agile are further pushing the boundaries. Do we even need Architects? Many would suggest not. In this talk, long-time Architect and Solutions Architect MVP Kevin Francis from Object Consulting will challenge the audience with his views on Architecture and Architects, covering areas such as:
- The role of the Architect in a project context.
- The relationship between Architects and other roles in a project and professional context.
- The skills and knowledge required by an Architect.
In addressing the above Kevin will consider both iterative and agile types of projects, thereby addressing the role of the Architect in agile projects.
So, tell me what you think of the above. What else do you think I should talk about? Is it interesting?
I have made the slides from the BA World presentation on 'Business Analysts v Architects' available on Slideshare. Please let me know what you think, and if you would like me to come at present it in person at your organisation or user group please let me know. I'm always happy to come and present this topic or any of the other topics that are listed here.
www.office2010themovie.com - LoL!!
Clippy? Is clippy going to make a return? I would seem so.
I love this idea. I was (apparently) one of the few people that liked the Office Assistants (although Clippy wasn't the best). I thought they did an excellent job of 'humanising' what is a fairly bland set of software products (sorry Office Dev team - it does look nice, but only as cool as a productivity suite can be).
It got me thinking though about the whole concept, and while I don't know what the team is planning, and I can see a nightmare for system admins, Clippy as a portal to social networking for Office users would be a killer. Clippy delivering Twitter and Facebook messages? Clippy playing music files? Either way, I'm thinking that we are moving into a new phase of UI development where things start getting sexy and fun again. Windows 7 is certainly an advance on that front already.
I'll blog more as soon as I can lay my hands on a beta of Office 2010.
I'm going to be brave over the next couple of months and present a few times at the series of BA World conferences in Australia. I'm presenting the following at Business Analysts World in Sydney 6-8th July and then in Melbourne 13-15th July on Business Analysts v Architects. You did know there was a war, right? 
Here's the adbstract:
There is much tension in all IT shops and all projects about the role of Business Analysts and Architects. The point where the roles meet is subject to much contention, and even anguish in some cases. This issue has been further exasperated by the advent of agile approaches and new design tools that further blur the line between Architects, Developer and Business Analysts. In his presentation, Kevin Francis, who is an experienced Architect and senior manager of Architects, Developers and Business Analysts will examine this issue. He’ll provide best practices in integration between Business Analysts and the rest of the development team in a pragmatic manner that can align with agile. He’ll also discuss the use of tools in enabling this interface.
Learning Objectives:
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Understand the points of interface between Business Analysts and Architects from an Architect’s perspective
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Learn the best practices available in the space and the division of labour across the roles
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Review tools available to support the analysis, design and architecture of solutions
I'll post the presentation to my SlideShare page after the conference.
I'm also presenting at BA World in Canberra on September 21st-22nd on Requirements for Sustainable IT Systems. More details on that to follow later.
Just a quick note to let you know that Early Bird registration is open for the Australian Architecture Forum until July 15. We are assembling a fantastic line-up of international speakers and Open Space participants from across the breadth of the IT landscape. The conference is looking like better and better value all the time, and it is even better value if you register early.
Hope you can come and join us!
I’ve been involved with the Australian Architecture Forum for some time now, from the outside through an involvement with IASA. Now that I’m with Object I have an opportunity to be involved from the inside, given that Object run the conference, and I’ve been putting a lot of time into the planning of this year’s Forum.
It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that the Australian Architecture Forum (AAF) is ready to accept registrations.
We’re very proud of what we have planned for AAF this year. We’ve leveraged the best ideas from conferences around the world, such as our use of Open Space Technology and a unique approach to opening our preparation to partners.
We’ve also selected tracks to target some of the hottest architectural topics at the moment – cloud and sustainability, as well as a general architecture track to target architecture as a profession.
Have a look at the Australian Architecture Forum web site. Registration is coming soon. I’ll also be blogging on that site as our preparation continues.
I’ve finally uploaded the slides from the Sustainable Architecture Design presentation that I presented in May at the JAOO conference in Sydney and Brisbane. The synopsis of the presentation is as follows:
- Sustainability is not just something that organisations can aim for to be nice or for marketing reasons. Rather, as governments increasingly aim to put a price on carbon electricity and the price of hardware will increase as the cost of carbon is passed on.
- It is surprisingly possible to control the amount of resources used through an application’s architecture.
- A number of approaches are outlined in the presentation for reducing resources used by applications and therefore cost and environmental impact.
This presentation is based on the article on the Green Maturity Model for Virtualisation that was published in Issue 18 of The Architecture Journal, supported by further work that has been completed by Object and myself on the subject.
The content is, of course, much better presented than read. If you would like it presented live in your organisation please contact me through Object.
Feedback is welcome….
Now that the article on The Green Maturity Model for virtualisation in Issue 18 of The Architecture Journal is out there and generating interest it is time to start talking about it, The whole topic is of great interest and importance and I’ve continued to work on the IP behind it with others from Object.
I’m going to be presenting on Sustainable Architecture Design at JAOO in Sydney on May 8.
Details are here.
Hope to see you there.
I haven’t blogged about this yet, but I have been thinking about it of late with some work that is happening at Object so I thought I would.
In November I presented at the Strategic Architecture Forum in San Francisco. This conference sees Enterprise Architects, CTO’s and CIO’s from the largest companies in the US attend along with many of the leading architecture practitioners.
I presented a talk there on ‘Growing Architects’, which pulled together the research that I have completed over the past three years with the help of other Architects from around the world. It provided CIO’s and CTO’s in the audience a toolkit for managing and developing Architects in their organisations. I think it was well revived and well understood
A key point of the presentation was the need for an ArcBOK – an architectural body of knowledge – within each organisation, as well as a well defined career path and process for managing careers and progression. Process Mentor provides an excellent repository for both Bodies of Knowledge and processes to support career management across all career streams in an organisation – not just Architecture.
At the moment we are in the middle of remodelling Object’s career structure based on this research. We’re also strengthening the use of Process Mentor as a repository of both knowledge and processes across the Object organisation. Process Mentor is a real gem from within Object and I cannot recommend it strongly enough as a BOK, as a process platform or as a methodology. It was one of the main reasons why I chose Object and it hasn’t disappointed.
As a BOK Process Mentor allows us to store not only how we do things (process) but also the knowledge of why and when we do things in a coordinated manner.
Links:
Thanks to everyone that attended the presentation last night at the Victoria.NET Dev SIG. Thanks especially for the lively discussion at the end.
I’ve uploaded the presentation to SlideShare so you can review it again at your leisure.
Please feel free to continue the conversation below, or by email.
Very late notice (it kind of snuck up on me like everything else does), but I am presenting tonight.
The presentation is on my favourite topic of career development. and is about how developers can learn to become great architects and how architects can chart a course to the next step. Something in it for everyone (as long as you are a developer or an architect!)
The presentation is for Victoria .NET and is on at Microsoft’s Melbourne office at Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place (Southbank) from 5:30. It follows what sounds to be an excellent presentation from a local success story – QSR International.
See here for more details: http://www.victoriadotnet.com.au/vic-events/vic-technical-events.aspx
There are compelling reasons for designing systems in a way to minimise the use of recourses and the carbon footprint of each system or application. If you are not across the imperative to immediately address carbon emissions then I implore you to read The Weather Makers or Climate Wars. I did, and now I am scared.
Regardless of the ecological or survival reasons for green architectural design there are economic reasons that matter from an organisational perspective. If your organisation is not paying a tax for carbon expelled in powering its servers and applications then it soon will be. Also, your organisation is likely to have already committed to carbon reduction targets or a timeframe for achieving sustainable operation.
So, the next Architecture Big Bet is Green Architecture. There is much more to this than just virtualisation, and it takes thought and clever design to build applications that minimise power consumption, and therefore emissions. It is imperative that this occurs though, both ecologically and economically, so I would recommend that it enter your architecture principles.
For further details see my article in the upcoming issue of The Architecture Journal
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The call for papers for the ASWEC 2009 Conference to be held on the Gold Coast 14-17 April is now open.
This year’s topic is “Agile, the New Mainstream”…
ASWEC provides a recognised forum for exchanging experience and new research results in software engineering, and is designed to offer the opportunity for interaction between software engineering researchers and industry practitioners. To deliver extra value to
participants, ASWEC 2009 will include a program of workshops and tutorials on current topics in software engineering led by experts in their fields.
I’m a great fan of ASWEC. The concept of a conference that is about software engineering and is specifically design to bring industry and research together, without being run by a technology vendor, is quite unique.
See here for details: http://aswec2009.itee.uq.edu.au/
In his keynote for Tech.Ed 2008 in the US Bill Gates made a passing comment that chips aren’t going to be getting any faster any more. Moore’s Law is still working, but rather than processing power increasing linearly as it has until recently, chips will be adding cores instead. There are complex engineering reasons behind this that I don’t really understand but I do understand the implication of this on software development.
These implications are significant and ground-shifting for development, and therefore for architecture. In the past it has been possible to just write code and rely on computers to run that code faster as they get faster. Application not fast enough? Just run it on a faster machine.
Now things are significantly different. Designing applications that run efficiently in a multi-threaded, multi-CPU environment is non-trivial. What may be the most difficult aspect of all for many people though is that it is now necessary to think about how code is architected and written at a lower level. This is a big change for today’s developers who have not really had to be concerned with that in the past. Ironically, those of of that grew up with very slow computers may be the best placed to write code on newer machines as we know how to think about how code runs at the code level.
I believe that there is a link between this trend and the changes in user interface design that I talked about in Part 1 of this series. After all, HTML is not really going to make use of multi-threading is it? Applications that are developed intelligently to make the most use of client capabilities are going to be the best positioned to make use of parallel processing.
Of course Architects and Developers that are working on server applications will be impacted by this trend as well.
I encourage all Developers and Architects to think about design
and development in a parallel-processing environment and how the changes needed to do this fundamentally changes the way we build applications. This means being careful about the design and development of code within classes and components, not just between components.
Update: Note the changes planned for Windows 7 to support this requirement. Posted in Mary-Jo Foley’s blog: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1612
Links:
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