Also speaking at Software Architect 2009

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:22:22 GMT

As Simon's already indicated, we'll be presenting at Software Architect 2009 in London.

We'll be running the CTA one-day workshop and Simon will be presenting two sessions on some of the skills typically required of software architects.

I'll be presenting a session on my day (and the occasional evening and night) job, working on a financial trading application. The focus will be on the client-side architecture of the desktop application, showing a few examples of how client and server development have similar concerns and solutions, but also where they are different and benefit from different techniques.

We've covered most of these concerns in various posts on this site, from development methodology to service-oriented designs and approaches to logging. With the return of rich applications (albeit "zero install" and/or running in a browser, plugin or mobile device) it's worth considering which design decisions are based on an understanding of this domain or simply inherited from lessons learned working server-side.

The schedule for SA2009 is looking good, so hopefully we'll be able to provide an overview of the discussions and presentations from this year's conference.

Speaking at Software Architect 2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:25:12 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that I'm presenting a number of sessions at Software Architect 2009, which takes place at the end of September in London. Here are the details of the sessions I'm presenting and we'll try to organise a CTA user group to coincide with the event. Kevin is also presenting, but I'll let him tell you about that. :-)

First of all, following its continued success, we're again running our 1-day software architecture workshop (which forms the basis of our longer training course). This is a pre-conference workshop and a great way to start the conference for anybody new or unfamiliar with software architecture and the role it has in building better software.

From Developer to Architect

This session is an interactive introduction to software architecture and what it means to be a software architect. It's aimed at software developers who are looking towards their first software architect role, as well as architects that are new to the role. You will gain:

An understanding of what it means to be a software architect, and the role's responsibilities.

An understanding of the trade-offs connected with architectural decisions.

Some experience of what it feels like to be an architect, including gathering non-functional requirements, determining the drivers for architecture, and defining an architecture.

An understanding that, as a software architect, it's okay to do some coding.

Combining presentation, group discussion and group working, throughout the day you'll be solidifying everything you learn by defining the architecture for a small software system. The overall goal is that you can take the experience gained here and apply it to your own projects. No architecture experience required, but software development experience is assumed.

Next up is a session that will look at some of the real-world skills that are needed by software architects today. This takes our view of the role of a software architect and fleshes out the technology aspects of it.

Broadening the T

A breadth of experience is key for successful software architects, but how do you get this and what should you know? In this technical session we'll look at the things every software architect should know, drilling down into the following topics:

Architecture and design patterns

Technologies, frameworks and tools

Designing for and testing non-functional requirements

All of this will done in the context of the Microsoft .NET and Java technology stacks, so you'll get some concrete guidance on what knowledge will help you in your role as a successful software architect.

Finally is a session that expands on Kevin's Sharing Architectures presentation to look at what should be included in an architecture definition. Real-world examples will be presented here to provide some concrete examples.

Documenting your software architecture - why and how?

A description of your software architecture is essential for any project of any size, explaining the rationale behind the design decisions and how the software will work in the real world. Such descriptions should include an explanation of the software structure, the architectural principles adopted, the constraints in force, the platforms on which the system is deployed and an explicit justification of how the architecture satisfies the requirements. A good software architecture document should describe what the code itself doesn't. This session will tell you how to do this.

Coding the Architecture - software architect 2009 tag

Also speaking at Software Architect 2009

Speaking at Software Architect 2009

From Developer to Architect

Broadening the T

Documenting your software architecture - why and how?