About: This blog post is about the upcoming Aspiring Architect Series

Greetings,

Based on suggestions I received from my blog readers, I have organized the next part of the architect series and have lined up a great set of speakers. Please share the links with your peers, I hope that you will find it to be useful investment of your time

Aspiring Architect Series 2008

Last year we held a Web Cast series for aspiring architects that was attended by over 1200 individuals and covered a number of strategies that can help developers and IT professionals to transition to the architect roles. The Aspiring Architect Series 2008 builds on last year’s content and covers a number of topics that are important for architects to understand. Please make sure that you have gone through the 2007 series which can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/tags/Aspiring+Architects/default.aspx . We are hopeful that you will find the upcoming series to be a very useful investment of your time.

June 16^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to the aspiring architect Web Cast series

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380836&Culture=en-CA

June 17^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Service Bus – Beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380838&Culture=en-CA

June 18^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – TOGAF and Zachman, a real-world perspective

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380840&Culture=en-CA

June 19^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture (Web Cast in French)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380842&Culture=en-CA

June 20^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Interoperability (Web Cast in French)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380844&Culture=fr-CA

June 23^rd , 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Realizing dynamic systems

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380846&Culture=en-CA

June 24^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Web 2.0, beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380848&Culture=en-CA

June 25^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Architecting for the user experience

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380850&Culture=en-CA

June 26^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Conclusion and next steps

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380852&Culture=en-CA

 Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This post is about CSAF 2008

Hello,

The annual Canadian Strategic Architect forum was held in Vancouver this week, one of the participants has been blogging about the event and has compiled the links to the video recordings of the sessions delivered at CSAF. We had a number of Microsoft and industry speakers, my personal favorite was the session delivered by Richard Cleaver, Chief Architect of Bank of Montreal

http://www.archiveloper.com/

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This blog post is about architect job opportunities

Greetings,

I was recently contacted by my friends at PetValue and the BC government to help them find some good architects, I am posting the links here, please go through them and circulate them in your circle of friends as well

http://www.bctc.com/careers/jobs.htm

About: This blog post provides a link to the Silverlight resources

Greetings,

I have received a number of inquiries about Silverlight in the past few months and was thinking about compiling a list of resources when I found out that one of my colleagues, Qixing Zheng has compiled a wonderful list of resources, you can find them at :

http://blogs.msdn.com/canux/archive/2008/03/26/silverlight-2-resource.aspx

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This post contains the list of resources about Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008

Greetings,

I want to thank all of you who attended the Architect Track at launch and provided feedback; here are some of the resources we mentioned during our track.

General

1.       Joel’s blog (in French)

a.       http://blogs.msdn.com/joelq

2.       Channel 9 for Architects

a.       http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/Architecture

b.      http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/ARCast.TV

3.       Subscribe to “The Architecture Journal”

www.architecturejournal.net

4.       Patterns and Practices Web Site

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/practices/default.aspx

Aspiring Architects

5.       Web Cast series for aspiring architects

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/05/25/architecture-101-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/01/software-development-lifecycle-and-methodologies-recording-and-resource-link.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/12/service-orientation-and-other-architectural-approaches-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/21/transitioning-to-an-architect-role-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

Visual Studio

6.       Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison

a.       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc149003.aspx

7.       Adam’s blog is at

 http://blogs.msdn.com/adamga

8.       Adam’s content

 http://adamga.canitpro.ca

9.       Visual Studio Webcast series

 http://msdn.microsoft.ca/vswebcasts

10.   Install Visual Studio 2008

Download available for MSDN Subscribers, Trial version available

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

11.   Download training kits, hands-on-labs and videos

http://download.vstudio/starterkits

12.   Subscribe to Scott Guthrie’s blog

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

Windows Server 2008

13.   Virtualization overall

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/default.mspx

14.   Server 2008 on MSDN

 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/windowsserver/default.aspx

15.    TechNet

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/default.aspx

16.  Small environments without management tools, try System Center Essentials

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/essentials/default.mspx

17.  Larger environments try System Center Virtual Machine Manager

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scvmm/bb727241.aspx

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This blog post is about the training on Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 on Feb 11, in Mississuaga

 Greetings,

We will be conducting training on Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 on Feb 11, 2008 in Microsoft's Mississuaga campus for architects and aspiring architects. It is a great opportunity to get ahead of your peers, get free books and materials on these technologies and learn how they can help you be more successfull

 http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032364802&Culture=en-CA

Best regards,

Mohammad 

About: This blog post provides link for an interesting article on Silverlight

Greetings,

Hope all of you are doing well, sorry for the long gap in blog posts, I was blessed with my third daughter during summers and along with vacation, training and organizing architect forum, I am finally back at the usual pace of activity. I recently came across an interesting article that I would like to share with you, you can find it at

http://vip.itworldcanada.com/t?r=8&c=5152&l=4234&ctl=23045:8BD8AB3275638410133CE93EF10C11A0

Enjoy reading!

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This post points to the article I have written for InfoQ

Greetings,

Hope all of your are doing well and hopefully had some time off during summer. I have recently published an article describing the various components of .NET 3.0 , you can find it at http://www.infoq.com/articles/akif-dotnet-architect 

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This post is about the new development center Microsoft is opening in Vancouver, Canada

Hello,

I am very happy to report that Microsoft Canada and our corporate head office will be opening a software development centre in Greater Vancouver, BC. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre (MCDC) will open in the Fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.

Canada has a burgeoning hi-tech and software industry, globally envied quality of life, and our cities represent exactly the kind of environment that leading information workers want to live in. The Vancouver area, in particular, is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft’s corporate offices in Redmond. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will help Microsoft remain globally competitive in its recruitment efforts while expanding our development footprint into Canada and providing strong economic benefits to the country.

Initially, we expect a few hundred employees to be part of this Centre.  We will continue to assess the Centre’s growth potential moving forward and hope that the Centre will become one of the company’s key hubs for international talent and for software development.  With the opening of this Centre, Canada will be one of only a handful of countries hosting development centers outside of our Redmond, WA, main campus.

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This post contains the recording and resource links for the fourth and last part of the aspiring architect series

Hello,

The recording and resource links for the web cast are as follows:

1. Recording: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032338981&Culture=en-CA

2. Architect Journal (Free Subscription) : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/default.aspx

3. Book : Software Architecture in Practice by Len Bass, Paul Clements and Rick Kazman

4. Academic, Carnegie Mellon University: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/index.html

I will provide more information about architectural training that Microsoft plans to organize online and otherwise in the coming weeks, stay tuned.

Best regards,

Mohammad

Best regards,

Mohammad 

About: This blog post contains recording and resource links for the third Web Cast in the aspiring architect series that was conducted by David Remmer

Hello,

The links for recording and resources for third Web Cast in the aspiring architect series is as follows:

 Recording link:

 http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032338979&Culture=en-CA

Resources

MSDN SOA : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/architecture/aa948857.aspx 
Thomas Erl Books: http://www.soabooks.com/ 
Ontology and Taxonomy of Services Article in the Architecture Journal: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/bb491121.aspx

The last part of series will be conducted on Thursday, June 14 2007

Best regards,

Mohammad 

About: This post contains the resources for the second part of the web cast series focused at aspiring architects

Hello,

David Remmer conducted the second part of the Web Cast series in which he covered a number of SDLC methodologies and approches including Waterfall, RUP, Agile (SCRUM, MSF) and SDLC tools. You can find the recording of the web cast at 

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032338975&Culture=en-CA

You can also find additional sources at

Agile Development : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb404166.aspx
Cruise Control (.NET) : http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/ccnet/welcome%20to%20cruisecontrol.net
Agile Journal : http://www.agilejournal.com/ 

Stay tuned for the next two parts of the series.

Best regards,

Mohammad

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032338975&Culture=en-CA

Agile Development : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb404166.aspx
Cruise Control (.NET) : http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/ccnet/welcome%20to%20cruisecontrol.net
Agile Journal : http://www.agilejournal.com/

About: This blog post is about table top computing

Greetings,

I don’t usually blog about ‘cool products’ but I have to make an exception this time. I was blown away by the new table top computer we announced yesterday that bridges the gap between the physical and the digital world. You will be able to sit in a  hotel lobby (starwood that owns Sheraton and Westin is an early adopter) order drinks from the table, drink at the table, split the bill at the table, pay at the table, get directions, use table as a concierge and do much more. You would also be able to compare phones at (selected) T-Mobile stores on the table and do other really cool stuff. The table top computers costs between $5000-10000 for now but we are committed to bringing the costs down and making it available to consumers. I would recommend checking out the three videos on the following Web Site

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/  

Best regards,

Mohammad

About: This blog post provides links to the articles and frameworks I referenced during my architecture 101 Web Cast yesterday

Greetings,

Thank you for attending the web cast, it was one of the largest Web Cast we have ever conducted and it was a real pleasure to interact with a lot of you yesterday (we had 45 minutes of Q&A after a 1 hour Web Cast!) . The recording and links for the web cast are as follows:

1.       Recording of the Web Cast

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032338972&Culture=en-CA

2.       Article- Characteristics of an effective enterprise architect

http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=idgml-3e21a390-4090-42f5-9279-23970f2ec7fe&Portal=1fa35bf9-d296-4571-8fff-c665a851ec1d&ParaStart=15&ParaEnd=30&direction=prev&Previous=Previous

3.       Architectural Frameworks (As I mentioned during my Web Cast you do NOT need to be an expert in them)

a.       Zachman Framework - http://www.zifa.com/ (go to the link for framework overview)

b.      TOGAF - http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/

c.       DODAF - http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/docs/DoDAF_Volume_I.pdf

d.      MODAF - http://www.modaf.org.uk/

e.      FEAF - http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-1-fea.html

4.       Swing set photos describing the breakdown in setting expectations and gathering requirements

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=80500328&size=o

This is a preliminary list of resources that only covers the material covered in part one of the web cast, I will continue to post resources including links to books, articles, certification program and others as we cover those in the web cast.

Best regards,

Mohammad

 About: This post is about the aspiring architect web cast series starting tomorow

Greetings,

Just wanted to remind everyone that the (technology-agnostic) web cast series focused on aspiring architects is starting tomorow.

https://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/04/25/webcast-series-for-aspiring-architects.aspx

Please point those in your organization that might be interested in the topic to the link above for registration. I will also post a detailed set of resources for aspiring architects next week.

For everyone that has been asking for blog posts on Web 2.0, I promise that a five part series will be posted in June so stay tuned and thank you for your patience :-)

Best regards,

Mohammad