Kevin Francis:: Yes, but... : Architects

Architect Knowledge

Kevin Francis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:53:00 GMT

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.

Waxing Lyrical About Cloud

Kevin Francis — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:05:00 GMT

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.

Slides from Tech.Ed 2009 Now Available...

Kevin Francis — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:58:00 GMT

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.

Tech.Ed 2009

Kevin Francis — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:21:00 GMT

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?

BA World Slides Available

Kevin Francis — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:30:00 GMT

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.

Early Bird Registration for Australian Architecture Forum

Kevin Francis — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:03:00 GMT

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!

SAF, Careers and ArcBOK

Kevin Francis — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:05:31 GMT

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:

Miha Kralj’s excellent article in The Architecture Journal - “The Need for an Architectural Body of Knowledge” is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/cc505967.aspx. You can also take up the discussion here: http://architect-center.com/media/p/2.aspx
Object Consulting: www.objectconsulting.com.au
Process Mentor: www.processmentor.com

Career Development for Architects

Kevin Francis — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:31:15 GMT

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.

I’m presenting tonight

Kevin Francis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:08:54 GMT

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

Tech.Ed 2008 Slides and Outcome

Kevin Francis — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:54:00 GMT

So Tech.Ed is over for another year. No matter what I might be doing and where I might be heading I still have a very close affinity with technology (I'm still very much a geek at heart, and even my mug says so!) and so as much as Tech.Ed is busy and tiring for a speaker there is still some sadness when it is over.

I think Tech.Ed was a success overall and I was very happy to see that my session was well received even though (or perhaps even because) it was not a deeply technical session. I'm actually rating quite well at the moment and there has been lots of positive feedback, despite the fact that, umm, apparently I say ummm too much. Oh, and I was too serious. Right on both counts. More rehearsing needed next time. For those of you that went but haven't filled in your feedback yet please login to Commnet and do so. The feedback does help enormously.

I have attached the slides to this post. If you would like the presentation given to your organisation and you are located in Australia please register an interest in this through Object's Web Site and I'll be happy to come and present in person.

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