Michel Baladi on software : Misc

I'm moving on...

mbaladi.net — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:43:00 GMT

After a six and a half year career at Microsoft, first as a principal consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services and later as Architect and Technical Lead in the EMEA Microsoft Innovation Centre (MIC) in Denmark, it is time fo me to move on.

Lately I have been working almost exclusively with innovation and software as a service (SaaS, and now it's time for me to stand on my own legs and practice what I hav been preaching. As of April 1st I will be doing free-lance consulting (mainly SaaS related) and also go back to my roots by starting a SaaS ISV with a couple of friends.

From April 1st, my blog will live at http://blog.baladisoftware.net and my web site will be living at http://www.baladisoftware.net

I'll talk about the remaining two sceanrios in the SHP from there...

I am no longer an architect!

mbaladi.net — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:35:00 GMT

Something that really gets to me in the software business is the constant stream of meaningless buzwords, three-letter-acronyms (TLA's) and completely overloaded terms.

I have been calling my self "solutions architect" or "architect advisor", because most of the work I have done in my career is to either "architect" solutions or lately help others do so.

Unfortunately the industry seems to think that architecture is just about everything including high-level modelling, writing code, being a domain expert, being able to apply knowledge to any domain, sell solutions, manage politics, manage project process and risk, mentor others, be vendor neutral, be a subject matter expert in some detail of some vendors technology, have the big picture and the list goes on and on.

A colleague of mine makes some good points and lists some of the architect definitions here. Here's a slightly modified list
http://www.bredemeyer.com/pdf_files/role.pdf
http://www.agilearchitect.org/agile/role.htm
http://www.artima.com/intv/architect.html
http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/CM_gen_Article_template.asp?articleid=1406&zoneid=225
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/architect/archcompetencies/default.mspx

TOGAF even defines a list of architect types and the skills and competencies each type of architect should have. The list is located at http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8-doc/arch/p4/skills/skills.htm).

So I thought that simply calling myself "solutions architect" or "architect advisor" was too unprecise and missleading. I tried to define the correct type as XML:

However, for some reason that seemed too complicated as well.

Finally I decided to simply call myself a Experinced Software Professional, or simply ESP to be industry compliant with the TLA's :-o

Btw, I noticed that Wikipedia list more than 30 meanings of ESP, but none in software...

I have also removed the word architecture from the title of my blog and from now I'll blog about software, not about about architecture or process.

Note: These are all my personal opinions based on my observations and it doesn't reflect my employer's view point.

Ahh - know it feels better. Glad I got it of my chest ;-)

Yours truly
Michel Baladi
ESP

Security Guidance is brought up to date through Sustained Engineering Program

mbaladi.net — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:57:00 GMT

The Microsoft Solutions for Security and Compliance (MSSC) team has released updates to five previously released guides, including the Microsoft Identity and Access Management Series that I co-authored.

The guides that have been brought up to date are:

Security Risk Management Guide v1.2.
The Microsoft Windows NT4.0 and Windows 98 Threat Mitigation Guide v1.1.
Windows XP Security Guide v2.2.
Windows Server 2003 Security Guide v2.1.
Microsoft Identity and Access Management Series v1.4.

The updated version of Microsoft Identity and Access Management Series is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=14842

Updated LinkedIn profile

mbaladi.net — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:46:00 GMT

View my LinkedIn profile and connect to me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/baladi

I finally got myself a blog

mbaladi.net — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:30:00 GMT

Welcome to my blog about solutions architecture and implementations on the Microsoft platform as well as a couple of other topics I care about. The topics include identity and access management, integration and interoperation with other platforms and systems, security, tools and DLC processes. I’ll spare you for my opinion on a couple of other topics that I care about as well, such as sailing.

Short bio: I spent 20+ years of my life in the software industry in many different roles. In my current role I work as an architect advisor in Microsoft’s Technology Centre (MTC) in Copenhagen. In this role I work with ISVs from all over Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) across verticals on architectural designs and reviews, process guidance etc. In my previous role in Microsoft I worked with large enterprise customers on the same topics.