Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum 2004
The 4th annual Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum started yesterday. Those of us in architect-oriented field roles (Architect Evangelists, consulting architects, etc.) had two days of training here in Redmond, in advance of the SAF. There is some incredibly powerful and paradigm-changing (sorry) technology on its way. In particular, Microsoft’s work on software factories (see Software Factories, by Jack Greenfield and Keith Short, with Steve Cook and Stuart Kent) has some extraordinary potential; we’ll see some hints of this in the architect edition of Visual Studio 2005 Team System next year. And Microsoft is a sponsor of OOPSLA this year – hint – stay tuned.
Also extremely interesting is how Indigo, the SQL Service Broker, BizTalk Server, and today’s messaging technologies (ASMX, WSE, MSMQ, Enterprise Services) are coming together. (Side note: highlight in my weekend was having Don Box say “I couldn’t agree with you more” when I made the point that stability in the programming model will be the most critical consideration as these technologies evolve – something that WSE hasn’t given us, to date.)
