Kevin Francis:: Yes, but... : Architecture - General

Enterprise Futures Forum

Kevin Francis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:07:00 GMT

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!

Selecting a Wiki

Kevin Francis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:57:00 GMT

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.

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!

Australian Architecture Forum

Kevin Francis — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:36:00 GMT

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.

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

Architecture Big Bets 2008-2009 – Part 3 - Green Architecture

Kevin Francis — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:11:00 GMT

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

Technorati Tags: Architecture Journal,Future,Sustainability,Environment,Green IT

Technorati Tags: Architecture,future,green,environment,sustainability

ASWEC 2009 Call for Papers

Kevin Francis — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:36:00 GMT

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/

Technorati Tags: ASWEC,Architecture,Australia,software engineering

Architecture Big Bets 2008-2009 – Part 2 – Parallel Processing

Kevin Francis — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:16:00 GMT

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:

Technorati Tags: Architecture,future,.NET

Architecture Big Bets - Part 1 - Replacing HTML (Finally!)

Kevin Francis — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:46:00 GMT

HTML is an excellent technology, and I truly raise my hat to Sir Tim Berners-Lee for inventing it. My suggestion is that by now HTML is no longer suitable as either an application development platform or is optimal an information delivery method in some cases. I’d like to present this theory as the first Architecture Big Bet.

You probably know my views on that I have been talking for some time now about the fact that desktop applications are better for internal applications that are used by users for a significant period of time. Well, the information that I have been posting here and talking about in presentations when I can has been aimed at awakening people to the options and opportunities and while technology has supported the message the widespread adoption has not been. I’ve been yelling into the ether hoping that people would hear and understand. Some have.

A number of factors are aligning to drive significant change in this area though. These are:

Greater amounts of bandwidth;
A focus on design thanks to Apple, Vista, mobile phones and other devices, and increasing consumerism;
Improvements in processing power and graphical capabilities of machines and operating systems; and
Availability of Silverlight.

I talk about Silverlight because Flash has not been able to achieve the same mindshare as Silverlight has even though it has been technically capable for some years. Also, I see Silverlight as a technology this is driving this trend.

The reason that Microsoft has achieved this state with Silverlight now, and that it will be the killer for user interfaces for all applications, is that:

It has been developed it from a data-driven application perspective;
That the interface between design and development is so smooth; and
It benefits from being the next generation.

Flash was never able to move beyond advertising because it was just that little bit too hard to do things other than graphical work in it.

I see that the future web applications will be increasingly developed with a rich UI such as Silverlight rather than HTML, and in preference to AJAX. This is great, because as well as the driving factors listed above we should realise that coding in script, AJAX, HTML or whatever combination of the above we use is just simply too hard, too expensive and too hard to maintain (even with tool support).

I think that this will be the case for both intranet and Internet content.

This shift obviously results in different architecture models, with greater capabilities on the client, and a greater focus on user interface design than has been the case in the past. It brings with it a focus on entirely different UI design approaches where it is no longer necessary to make applications look like Office (see earlier posts).

So, I suggest that:

Developers learn Silverlight;
Architects understand what this means and build processes for design and development accordingly;
Organisations look to employ designers; and
Architects, Developers, BA’s and UI designers understand the new UI design paradigms needed.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Silverlight,Architecture,Microsoft,future

Architecture Big Bets 2008-2009 - Introduction

Kevin Francis — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:51:00 GMT

As an Architect I concentrate less on detail these days and more on fluffy bits, so I get to spend time looking at things that are coming down the pipe and trends and changes in the future. I'm aware that many other Architects are focused differently. There might therefore be some value from me sharing some of the areas that I see changes happening in. In fact, I am finding this whole area extremely exciting at the moment (in a very geeky kind of way).

I have looked at a lot of changes that have occurred over the time in a very cynical way as bring more evolutionary, repackaging of existing technologies or cyclical than anything. Examples of these kinds of changes are AJAX (I did that in the 90's with IE5 - so last century), SOA (just good architectural design on interfaces, and interfaces are nothing new), and Agile (working together on development is something that all good Architects have done forever anyway and now that real standards and management have been added to the common view of Agile it makes sense).

Real changes that I have watched with excitement over the time have been: HTML, XML (when XML first appeared in the 90's I thought it would change the face of IT, which it has), Web Services (because the bar was finally lowered for cross-platform and cross-technology communications).

Now, I am really excited about the changes that are brewing or appearing. There are, as far as I can see, a few big things with XML-like ramifications that are either here but haven't really been noticed or are quietly evolving just over the horizon, that will reshape the industry. Over the next few days I'm going to talk to introduce them here, along with why I think they'll be big. I encourage the very quiet readers of this blog to then join in for a change and discuss.

Technorati Tags: Architecture,future

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.

Technorati Tags: Architects,careers,Tech.Ed,presentation

Tech.Ed 2008

Kevin Francis — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT

I'm back at Tech.Ed Australia this year, so come see me:

ARC204 Career Development for Architects

Wednesday, 3-9-2008 14:15 - 15:30, Parkside Auditorium

The top tier of the career pyramid in the development area belongs to Architects and most Developers are aiming for that target. There is, however, little concrete information available to help people chart that course. This session will provide a map of how to chart that course in meaningful, clear and achievable steps. Kevin will leaverage from his 23 years industry experience, 15 years architecture experience and experience leading large teams of Developers and Architects to outline technical, soft, and other skills needed. He will also explain the ideal Architect profile (which is different from what most Developers think) and will cover the difficult topic of how Architects should prepare themselves for the steps after being an Architect.

I'll be around for the whole conference. Object Consulting, my new employer (more about that soon) will have a stand there, so I'll be easy to find.

User Interface Selection Principles

Kevin Francis — Fri, 05 May 2006 01:44:00 GMT

A discussion of the history of web browsers as a UI technology for applications, issues with the use of browsers and other models that are more successful....(read more)

Buy vs Build

Kevin Francis — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:26:00 GMT

Please note that the views expressed in this post, along with the rest of my blog, are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer.

Anna's article on the issues being faced by the organisation she has been working with where the directive is to buy, not build, but where the buy decision is clearly not right. There are a couple of principles that either organisations at a board level or IT Departments at an Enterprise Architecture level are applying that I fundamentally disagree with, and the principle of 'Buy, not Build' is one of the worst.

A solid architectural principle is to buy before reuse, and to reuse before build. This principle enshrines the concept of reuse and avoids building code where a more cost effective option exists. It is a core principle that I always use in architectural design.

There seems to be such a push towards the use of COTS products - not in a buy, reuse, build metaphor, but in a buy only metaphor, as Anna outlined in her article. This is wrong on so many levels, and yet is being implemented in a number of major Australian firms at the moment, and I have no doubt is being replicated across the globe.

COTS products offer a quick path when, and only when, the following are true:

The product has a very close fit for your requirements; and
The product can easy be configured to meet the remaining requirements; or
Your processes can be easily configured to meet the product.

In some rare cases it may be possible to extend the COTS product through a separate, but linked, system. Anything else, such as complex customisation of the COTS system to allow it to meet the requirements should not be undertaken as it will make future upgrades of the COTS product near to impossible. This results in the worst of both worlds and is far worse than building the system in the first place.

The other option that I commonly hear today is that the organisation is so set on a COTS product that they decide to change their business to suit the product. Now, I'm an Architect, not a COO, but I really struggle to see the sense in this. It is simply unworkable on a number of levels:

The cost of changing business processes is generally greater than the cost of developing software;
What may be an optimal business process for a COTS product may be common for an industry but is highly unlikely to suit the complexities of each organisation;
There is little or no room left to change business processes either because they may be sub-optimal or because the business or market conditions change.

So what is the alternative? Well, buy-reuse, build is the alternative.

When I think of buy and reuse I think of components, not monolithic systems. In some case a large system may be a good fit for common and simple processes, but a better option is to buy components and integrate them in an intelligent manner using an integration layer. SAP and Oracle understand this architecture and are componentising their systems to an increasing degree in response. This is not to say that I don't advocate the implementation of a large COTS system, but only where the system is a good fit for the organisation.

Now, the other thing that most organisations, and even many Architects, fail to take into account, is that the cost of building software is dramatically falling - especially on the .NET platform. Changes to the language, the IDE and advancements such as domain specific modelling languages and MDA are resulting in the need to build far less code (by around 50%) than even a couple of years ago. The use of workflow tools in the architecture, such as Windows Workflow Foundation or BizTalk Server, can result in a system that is flexible to business change.

Given the rapidly degreasing cost of development, matched with the ability to closely meet requirements, I would suggest that a build option is well and truly worth considering, rather than blanket C-level decisions to implement COTS systems without at least assessing the options, relative advantages and costs.

In fact, given that I've been in the industry for quite a while now and have seen fads come and go I am sure that this leaning towards blanket COTS implementations is a fad and those organisations that go down the fad route wil be reversing the decisions at a far greater expense in the future.