Facilitated by
Dana Bredemeyer, Bredemeyer Consulting
Ruth Malan, Bredemeyer Consulting
and Bill Branson, Frank Russell Company
Inquiries: dana@bredemeyer.com
Abstract: In the workshop, we will develop a model of the role, responsibilities and skills of an architect. It will be used to frame the Action Guides that will be produced in the workshop. Action Guides are targeted at some specific challenge that the architect faces. They may be technical (e.g., how to model the architecture; how to document an interface) or non-technical (e.g., how to create an architecture vision; what to communicate to whom).
Enrollment/Submission Deadline: Note: we are willing to waive the requirement that you submit a position paper before the workshop. To participate, you must let us know by September 28, 2000 ((email dana@bredemeyer.com), and enroll in the workshop through OOPSLA registrations. If you cannot manage a position paper in time, at least jot down your ideas to bring along to the workshop.
Workshop Description
More and more organizations are establishing the role of software architect, recognizing that creating and deploying an architecture demands special talents and focus. Clearly, the role has a core technical aspect to it, but this is only sufficient to create a good architecture. To create the right architecture, the architect also needs to understand business strategy and translate it into a compelling technical strategy. But that is not sufficient to ensure that the architecture is successful. First, it requires organizational politics to gain and sustain the support of the management community throughout the architecture’s creation and deployment to developers. In addition, to ensure the architecture doesn’t simply gather dust on engineers’ bookshelves, architects need to act as consultants to the engineering community, helping them to understand the architecture and the rationale behind it. Lastly, architects need to be strong leaders, aligning the organization behind a powerful vision that motivates and guides.
The workshop will have two primary sessions. The first will focus on the role, responsibilities and skills of an architect, developing a model to frame the Action Guides that will be produced in the second session. Large-group graphical facilitation will be used in the first session, to speedily capture the participant’s input.
In the second session, small teams will work on creating specific Action Guides. Action Guides are short (fit on two sides of an 8x5 index card) and action-oriented (see our Action Guide examples). On one side, the technique is summarized visually as a model or template. On the other, the following template is used:
Action Guides will be based on contributors white papers and on techniques that participants share during the workshop. The Action Guides created by the teams will be shared with all participants during the wrap-up session at the end. We will also hold a poster session to give the OOPSLA community a chance to see the Action Guides created in the workshop.
Workshop Objective: Participants will:
Agenda
Session I: The Architect Role
The first session will focus on the role, responsibilities and skills of an architect,
developing a model to frame the Action Guides that will be produced in the second session.
Large-group graphical facilitation will be used in the first session, to speedily capture
the participant’s input.
Session II: Action Guides
Small teams will work on creating specific Action Guides. Action Guides will be based
on contributors white papers and on techniques that participants share during the
workshop.
Session III: Debrief and Wrap-up
The Action Guides created by the teams will be shared with all participants during the
wrap-up session at the end.
To be considered for participation in the workshop, you
need to write a white paper on a specific technique you have used to create some result of
importance to the architect role. For example, white papers could:
The white papers will be published on this website, and will also be distributed among
participants to read before the workshop. They will be used as input to the creation of
the Action Guides in the afternoon session of the workshop.
Note on Submissions: Email your submission to dana@bredemeyer.com. White papers should be in .pdf format. If you have trouble with this, contact us and we will see if we can accept your prefered format. White papers must be submitted by September 15, 2000, although we strongly encourage earlier submittals. You will be notified of acceptance by September 20th.
References
Action Guide Examples. The following Action Guides were created by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer:
See also
Participant Background
This workshop is targeted at practicing architects whose experience has taught them that architecting is not just a technical endeavor, but a social, political and strategic one as well.
Organizers' Backgrounds
Dana Bredemeyer has been giving
presentations on software architecture and teaching software architecture workshops at
Hewlett-Packard and elsewhere for 5 years. He has over 20 years experience architecting,
designing and developing software systems, including 16 years with HP. He has provided
architecture consulting and training to architects, architecture teams and their
management, and has helped teams develop software, firmware and system architectures. Dana
Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan are writing a book titled Software Architecture Action Guide
for Prentice-Hall. Dana and Ruth are editors of the highly popular Resources
for Software Architects web site.
Ruth Malan has authored numerous papers and book chapters on
object-oriented development, reuse and architecture. She is editor and an author of the
book, Object-Oriented Development at Work: Fusion in the Real World. She has
extensive experience teaching and consulting in software architecture, having helped
pioneer the architecture consulting and training program while at Hewlett-Packard.
Bill Branson is Director of Information Technology Architecture at the
Frank Russell Company, where he provides leadership and direction to the company in the
areas of information technology architecture, technology strategy and emerging technology
and trends. His has extensive work experience in both the vendor and end user companies in
positions such as technical marketing and support, systems programming, network
engineering and application development. Bill also teaches networking courses at the
University of Washington in Seattle and Bellevue.
- OOPSLA2000 Workshop Description -
September 26, 2000