Chris Bowen's Blog : Architecture

Session Schedule for Architect Factory on June 2nd

cbowen — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:40:47 GMT

An update to my earlier post, the schedule has been set for The Architect Factory event coming to NERD on June 2nd. IASA New England, {Code Right}, Microsoft, and O’Reilly are sponsoring this half day multi-track event for senior developers and aspiring architects. Hear from seasoned architects on what you need to know to become an architect.

There will be a keynote by Rob Daigneau followed by 9 sessions organized into 3 tracks (Architecture in Action, Leadership, and Head in the Clouds). Sessions will cover practical techniques, current methodologies, patterns, cloud computing, security, how to work with IT stakeholders.

Register at arcfactory.eventbrite.com

This event will be held at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, MA from 1:00 - 7:15 PM with dinner afterward. So come join your peers and network with some of the most influential architects here in the northeast!

Event Agenda

1:00 – 1:30 - Arrive, Meet and Greet

1:30 - 2:45 - Keynote: “Becoming An Architect”, Rob Daigneau

2:45 – 3:00 - Break

3:30 - 4:15 – Sessions
”The Dangers of Over Architecting Solutions” - Bryan Tuttle
“The IT Architect and Technology Leadership – where are we and what next?” - David Leonard
“How the Cloud Pattern is Changing Enterprise Architecture” - Todd Bremner

4:15 - 4:30 - Break

4:30 - 5:45 – Sessions
“Establishing Developer Practices” - Dennis Perlot
“Working with Business Stakeholders” - Ian Dicker
“The Architect and the New Identity Paradigm” - Curt Devlin

5:45 – 6:00 - Break

6:00 - 7:15 – Sessions
“Architecture of Collaboration Systems” - SB Chatterjee
“Using LAAAM to Make Good Architectural Decisions, Fast!” - Jeromy Carriere
“Application Patterns for the Cloud” - Igor Moochnick

7:15 -8:30 - Evening Dinner Event

O’Reilly Media has generously donated copies of 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know, and we’ll raffle off a copy or two in each session.

An Event for Aspiring Architects: The Architect Factory on June 2nd

cbowen — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:12:10 GMT

Many experienced developers look to become architects as the next step in their careers, but it can be difficult to find opportunities to learn about the skills needed to make the transition. Aspiring architects need a way to learn what to learn to become effective architects.

The Architect Factory is designed to fill this need.

Coming to the Microsoft Cambridge, MA office (aka “NERD”) on June 2nd from 1-7 PM, The Architect Factory is a free event for all experienced developers to learn about the practices and processes that will help prepare them for roles as architects:

The Architect Factory event focuses on you, senior technologists interested in becoming software, solutions, enterprise, or design architects. This event helps bridge the knowledge gap between senior technical, design, enterprise, information, and solutions roles and real-world architecture roles, putting you on the path to becoming an architect in your field.

This is an opportunity to establish yourself as a visionary that architects the future, being able to design and create integrated systems that solve complex business problems. It can be challenging to find the right information and advice for taking steps toward becoming an architect, so join us for The Architect Factory and you’ll be well on your way!

The day will be feature a mix of content and social time, a great chance to learn and to make new connections.

Thanks to IASA (International Association of Software Architects) for helping to sponsor this event and fostering the growth of a new generation of architects!

Registration

Registration for this free event is now open, so reserve your spot at:

http://arcfactory.eventbrite.com

Please keep in mind that there’s a lot to cover at this event, so the sessions will assume that audience members have significant hands-on development experience.

The final schedule is coming in under two weeks, so keep an eye on this blog or the event registration page for details.

Call for Content and Speakers

There are a number of presenters already lined up, but we want to reach out to other architects interested in sharing knowledge and experience.

We’re looking for sessions to familiarize senior developers with the areas that all architects should understand to succeed. For example (but certainly not limited to!):

The Role of the Architect
Principles of Software Design
Methodology Comparisons (TOGAF, Zachman)
Design Patterns
Testing and Validation
Establishing Development Practices
Model Driven Architecture
Service Oriented Architecture
Performance
Interoperability
Patterns for Cloud Computing
Refactoring
Architecting for the User Experience
Working with Business Stakeholders and Development Teams

Interested in helping by sharing your perspective and experience? Contact me and let me know which areas you’re interested in covering.

The Call for Content and Speakers will close on Tuesday, May 19th.

Hope to see many of you there. I’m looking forward to a day of great interaction, knowledge sharing, and networking!

-Chris

Special Boston Event: Roger Sessions on Enterprise Architecture, January 21st

cbowen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:26:44 GMT

The New England chapter of the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) will be hosting Roger Sessions on January 21st at the Sheraton Boston at 39 Dalton Street. He will be speaking on "Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises".

The event is free, with registration here:

http://iasane.eventbrite.com

This is a great opportunity to hear from one of the industry's best!

In addition, Roger will be facilitating discussions at the MSDN Developer Conference the following day (January 22nd), also at the Sheraton.

Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises

It is common to hear of massive IT failures; projects that are over budget, late, poorly aligned to business needs, or all of the above. Often, the resulting losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The cause is almost always the same: uncontrolled complexity. The solution to complexity is simple — or more specifically, simplicity.

We need to understand what makes systems simple with as much critical reasoning as we do what makes systems fast, secure, or reliable. This talk is about the mathematical models of complexity and the methodologies needed to control it. Complexity is the most insidious problem facing IT architects. Control it, or it will bury you! This talk will be thought provoking and open new areas for exploration.

Roger Sessions is a well known speaker and presenter in the field of high-end enterprise architectures. He is the author of seven books, dozens of articles, and many white papers. He is well known as the inventor of the SIP methodology, a new approach to managing complexity in enterprise and IT architectures. Roger writes and publishes the ObjectWatch Newsletter, a widely read and highly regarded newsletter on high-end enterprise software technologies. He is the Editor in Chief of Perspectives of the International Association of Software Architects, an IASA Fellow, and a Microsoft MVP in Architecture.

Register

Thanks to Bob Familiar for coordinating this!

-Chris

MSDN/Architecture Journal Readers and the Reader SDK

cbowen — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:48:44 GMT

Some very cool news if you're a fan of the WPF-based New York Times reader or Seattle P-I reader. We've just released the Reader SDK which you can use to quickly create similar rich applications for your own purposes.

In addition, the MSDN Magazine Reader sample application (featuring full source code) is now available, as is the Architecture Journal Reader.

Head over to WindowsClient.net for information on the Reader SDK and links to the MSDN Reader sample. The MSDN Reader lives under the name "Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit" or SCE. Head to the Architecture Journal site for more on that application [download here].

Here's a quick tour, focusing on the MSDN Reader (most of the features are shared with the Architecture Journal Reader.) As you can see, it's basically like have a magazine or newspaper right on your machine:

See an article and presto - read away!

But this goes well beyond the capabilities of mere paper. You can zoom in or out without loss of fidelity and you can add your own annotations, but I think the most important feature is search:

If you're anything like me, you come across lots of articles that you'd like to note for later reading... when you have that elusive "free time"... That's easy to do with the Readers' "Reading List" feature. First send stories to the Reading List (right-click to get the menu):

Then, open the Reading List, (by default, docked on the right-hand side) and click through to read each article (they're automatically grayed out as you view them):

And of course, the Readers both support automatic synchronization of content to support offline reading. The MSDN Reader uses the new Subscription Center beta to manage it's subscription:

The MSDN Reader and Architecture Journal Reader applications are definitely worth a look. If you have your own data/content source that you'd like to make available for display, I encourage you to take a look at the MSDN Reader code and the SCE/Reader SDK as well.

-Chris

Special Multi User Group Event with David Chappell

cbowen — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:46:19 GMT

I'm excited to announce that we've organized a special evening event for developers and architects featuring David Chappell. David (bio below) is an industry veteran, well-respected for his ability to consistently convey technical content and insights in an engaging manner.

He'll be speaking on "Understanding Software + Services":

The move to service-orientation is well underway, both inside enterprises and on the Internet. What role does traditional software play in a world of on-line services? In particular, how is Microsoft approaching the combination of software plus services? This presentation provides an overview of this area, giving an introduction to and a perspective on this emerging combination.

The event is January 31st from 6-8 PM at the 201 Jones Road Microsoft office in Waltham, MA. This unique event is a combined group effort for the following user groups:

I hope you're able to take advantage of this rare opportunity!

-Chris

P.S. Here is David's Bio:

David Chappell is Principal of Chappell & Associates in San Francisco, California. Through his speaking, writing, and consulting, he helps IT professionals around the world understand, use, and make better decisions about enterprise software.

David has been the keynote speaker for dozens of conferences and events in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America. His popular seminars have been attended by tens of thousands of developers, architects, and decision makers in forty countries. He has also spoken at many universities, including the National University of Singapore, Moscow State University, and Sweden's Uppsala University.

David's books have been published in ten languages and used regularly in courses at MIT, ETH Zurich, and other educational institutions. He is Series Editor for Addison-Wesley's award-winning Independent Technology Guides, and he's been a columnist for several publications. In his consulting practice, David has helped clients such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Stanford University, and Target Corporation adopt new technologies, market new products, train their sales staffs, and create business plans.

David's comments have appeared in The New York Times, CNN.com, and many other publications. Earlier in his career, he wrote software for supercomputers, chaired a U.S. national standardization working group, and played keyboards with the Peabody-award-winning Children's Radio Theater. David holds a B.S. in Economics and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.You can reach him at: www.davidchappell.com

Announcing Bob and Chris' MSDN Roadshow!

cbowen — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:33:00 GMT

Bob Familiar and I are busting out of our home bases in Massachusetts and taking our long-winded rants and questionable demos on the roads across the Northeast! In the coming weeks, we'll be bringing the latest in developer- and architect-focused content to a town near you.

Join us for a full day of no-fluff deep technical content, plenty of code, 100% guaranteed-to-run demos*, and of course giveaways throughout with a chance to win a Zune at day's end! [* We'll define "run" as we go.]

Roadshow Schedule and Registration

Rochester, NY	February 27^th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Click Here to Register!
Burlington, VT	March 1^st, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Click Here to Register!
Portland, ME	March 6^th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Click Here to Register!
Manchester, NH	March 8^th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Click Here to Register!
Farmington, CT	March 20^th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Click Here to Register!

Event Agenda

For this tour, we're focusing on all things .Net Framework 3.0. Here's the agenda:

08:30am – Arrive, check in, grab a nosh and a seat

09:00 – 10:15 – Windows Communication Foundation

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is Microsoft's unified framework for building secure, reliable, transacted, and interoperable distributed applications. Learn how to leverage the new features in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to make a smooth transition to a service-orientation. The capabilities exposed through this new addition to the .NET framework will enable the core building blocks of connected systems such as data & service contracts, security, reliability, administration, and management

10:15 – 10:30 – Take a break and communicate

10:30 – 12:00 – Windows CardSpaces

Windows CardSpace enables users to provide their digital identities in a familiar, secure and easy way. In the physical world we use business cards, credit cards and membership cards. Online with CardSpace we use a variety of virtual cards to identify ourselves, each retrieving data from an identity provider. Don't struggle with usernames and passwords, just choose an information card! This session will delve into the architecture and implementation of CardSpaces.

12:00-01:00 – Grab a lunch and ponder your identity

01:00 – 02:15 –Workflow Foundation

Workflow Foundation (WF), a component of the .NET Framework 3.0, enables you to quickly and reliably implement workflows and business rules in your applications. WF provides a framework for constructing sequential and state-machine based workflows for any .NET application or service and includes tools to effectively manage and modify those workflows. In this session, we'll introduce the major concepts and purpose of WF, demonstrate the creation and maintenance of workflows with Visual Studio 2005, and show the potential uses of workflows within your applications.

02:15-02:30 – Take a break and go with the flow

02:30 – 03:45 – Windows Presentation Foundation

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft’s new strategic User Interface technology designed to provide richer, high-fidelity, applications using an optimized developer/designer workflow. Learn how to leverage the new features in WPF such as XAML to create visually stunning interfaces to enhance capabilities and user experience of your applications.

03:45 – 04:00 – Zune Giveaway

-Chris

Microsoft Architecture Journal #9 Now Available

cbowen — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:19:34 GMT

The latest issue of the Architecture Journal is now available (PDF version here).

Software Factories are the focus of this issue:

Bare Naked Languages or What Not to Model
Domain-Specific Modeling
Measuring Success with Software Factories
A Foundation for the Pillars of Software Factories
A GSI's Perspective of Software Factories
The Perspective-Based Architecture Method

You can subscribe to the Architecture Journal here.

-Chris

ArcStream Announcement

cbowen — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:18:00 GMT

Bob Familiar, my Architect Evangelist counterpart in New England, has posted details of upcoming events related to the arcStream initiative:

December 11th - arcCouncil meeting on "Composite Application Architecture and User Experience"
January 11th - arcLab session: "Take a lap around .NET 3.0"
There are also many arcCasts on a variety of subjects coming up as well.

More details and registration can be found at the arcStreamEast.net site.

-Chris

Chris Bowen's Blog : Architecture

Session Schedule for Architect Factory on June 2nd

Event Agenda

Sponsored By

An Event for Aspiring Architects: The Architect Factory on June 2nd

Registration

Call for Content and Speakers

Special Boston Event: Roger Sessions on Enterprise Architecture, January 21st

MSDN/Architecture Journal Readers and the Reader SDK

Special Multi User Group Event with David Chappell

Announcing Bob and Chris' MSDN Roadshow!

Microsoft Architecture Journal #9 Now Available

ArcStream Announcement