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

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

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 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

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

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

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'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