Course Overview

The term "software architecture" is used both for the high-level structure of a software system, and the related field or discipline. In the workshop, we approach the software architecture discipline from three primary points of view:

architecture, answering the question: "what is software architecture?" and introducing architectural patterns, principles and mechanisms.

architecting, that is the process of creating an architecture. The major emphasis of the workshop is on learning how to create, validate and update an architecture.

architects, focusing on the role and responsibilities of the architect and positioning the architecture role within the organization.

Benefits

Software architecture contributes to competitive advantage in two primary ways:

• it provides the technology platform that supports the product characteristics and development processes which differentiate a business from its competitors

• it helps address system complexity.

Software architects are thus poised to play a critical role in an organization’s business success, translating business strategy into an architectural strategy that is the foundation for a stream of products or family of systems. This workshop is designed to provide participants with concepts, techniques and lessons from experience that will help them be more successful in the architect role.

We have considerable experience helping architects and their organizations transition to higher levels of architectural competency. The software architecture workshop integrates extensive real-world architecture experience, and builds on five years of teaching software architecture workshops.

Workshop participants receive a certificate at the end of the class.

Pricing

In-house: Pricing depends on number of students taking the class. Please contact us for details.

US Open Enrollment: The fee for the 4-day workshop is US$2400.00 per student.  

Europe Open Enrollment: The fee for the 4-day workshop is affected by the higher cost structure for running classes in Europe. The fee will be announced when a workshop is scheduled.

Note: We only accept a maximum of 16 participants, so register early to avoid disappointment. Lunches and morning and afternoon snacks will be provided, but workshop participants are responsible for dinners and their own accommodations.

We offer a 10% discount when you enroll 3 or more people from the same company in the same workshop at the same time. (We cannot retroactively apply the discount to people from your company who may already have completed the registration process.)

The price includes the workshop binder with color copies of the slides and notes, and a set of our Architecture Action Guides.

Cancellation Policy

Workshops in the US: We will refund the registration fee less a 5% processing fee if cancellations are made more than 30 days in advance of the workshop start date. Cancellations made 30 days or less from the workshop start date are not refundable. However, student substitutions may be made any time prior to the start of the workshop.

Workshops outside the US: We will refund the registration fee less a 5% processing fee if cancellations are made more than 6 weeks in advance of the workshop start date. Cancellations made within 6 weeks of the workshop start date are not refundable. However, student substitutions may be made any time prior to the start of the workshop.

All Please Note: We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule any workshop if enrollments are below the minimum necessary to cover costs and provide good class participation. This rarely happens, and we will keep registrants informed if enrollments are low enough to cause concern. If we are forced to cancel for any reason (such as major personal calamity including severe sudden illness or injury), our obligation will be limited to a full refund of class enrollment fees or transfer of the registration to a future workshop.

Venue

We will be holding open enrollment Software Architecture Workshops in:

• South Africa, Sept 3-6, 2001

• Rochester, NY, October 8-11, 2001

• Germany: November, 19-22, 2001

• San Diego, CA, March 11-14, 2002

• London, UK: April 15-18, 2002

• Seattle/Tacoma, WA, July 2002

• New Zealand, September 2-5, 2002

• Dallas, TX, November 11-14, 2002

• Cape Town, South Africa, December 9-12, 2002

• London, UK, February 11-14, 2003

• Boston, MA, May 5-8, 2003

• Houston, TX, November 18-21, 2003

• Denver, CO on March 15-18, 2004. 

• London, UK on June 28-July 1, 2004. 

• Oslo, Norway on June 28-July 1, 2004 

• Boston, MA on October 12-15, 2004. 
  

• Palo Alto, CA March 21-24, 2005. 

• London, UK June 21-24, 2005

• Indianapolis, IN September 26-29, 2005. 

• Las Vegas, NV, March 14-17, 2006

• Chicago, IL, September 19-22, 2006

• Washington, DC, November 14-17, 2006

• Chicago, IL, May 22-25, 2007

• Arlington, VA (Washington, DC area)
  October 1-4, 2007

• Chicago, April 15-18, 2008

• Indianapolis, IN October 13-16, 2008
   

• Chicago, IL April 6-9, 2009
   

• Please let us know if there is a location you would be most interested in.

On-site: If  6 or more people from your company would like to attend this class, you may find it more cost effective (taking travel costs into account) to hold the class at your company site.  Please call us at (812) 335-1653 or email training@bredemeyer.com for pricing and schedule.

Suggest a venue: If there is a location and timing that you are particularly interested in, please let us know.

Course Contents

This is a workshop, and small teams work on creating a draft architecture using the Visual Architecting Process. We follow the iterative architecting process, and weave concepts and architecting techniques into the lectures between work sessions. The lecture topics are driven by the concerns that are being addressed at that stage of the architecting process.  This makes it a "non-traditional" format, but it is one that works well as it allows us to work end-to-end through the creation of a draft architecture. 

Software Architecture

In the architecture specification sections, we deal with:

meta-architecture: the architectural vision, style, principles, key communication and control mechanisms, and concepts that guide the team of architects in the creation of the architecture.

architectural patterns: structural patterns such as layers and client/server, and mechanisms such as brokers and bridges.

architecture modeling using the Unified Modeling Language (UML).

architectural views: structural views help document and communicate the architecture in terms of the components and their relationships, and are useful in assessing architectural qualities like extensibility. Behavioral views are useful in thinking through how the components interact to accomplish their assigned responsibilities and evaluating the impact of what-if scenarios on the architecture. Behavioral views are especially useful in assessing run-time qualities such as performance and security. Execution views help in evaluating physical distribution options and documenting decisions.

component specification: components are identified and assigned responsibilities that client components access through "contracted" interfaces. Component interconnections specify communication and control mechanisms and allow component interactions to accomplish system behavior.

key architectural design principles including abstraction, separation of concerns, postponing decisions, and simplicity, and related techniques such as interface hiding and encapsulation, as well as system decomposition principles and good interface design.

See our white paper titled "Software Architecture: Central Concerns, Key Decisions" for an introduction to our approach to architecture.

The Architecting Process

The technical process section is the principal focus of the workshop, and covers:

Architectural requirements: how to elicit and document functional (i.e., behavioral) requirements and non-functional requirements (i.e., system qualities including run-time qualities such as performance and reliability, and development-time qualities such as evolvability/ extensibility and reusability).

System Specification: how to use architectural modeling to decompose the system, evaluate architectural trade-offs, and document the system using different views.

Architecture Validation: how to assess the system in terms of the system requirements.

The organizational process section covers:

Sponsorship: how to gain the support of all levels of management affected by the architecture

Leadership: how to create and lead the architecture team

Consulting: how to assist the developer community in their use of the architecture to ensure its successful adoption and appropriate use.

See the draft chapters of our book titled Software Architecture Action Guide  for an overview of the architecting process that we work through in the workshop.

The Role and Responsibilities of the Architect

This section relates the responsibilities and associated skills and attitudes of the architect to the architecting process.

See our white paper titled "The Role of the Architect" for an overview of the architect competency framework that organizes our approach to this section.

Audience

This workshop is designed for architects and senior system design engineers. Managers of architecture teams will also benefit.

Instructor's Background

Either Dana Bredemeyer or Ruth Malan teach the workshop. 

ABOUT BREDEMEYER CONSULTING|

Bredemeyer Consulting specializes in training and mentoring software architects. We typically work with architecture teams, providing training and mentoring to accelerate their creation or migration of an architecture. However, we do offer a limited number of Software Architecture Workshops for open enrollment.