SATURN 2013 Open Space: Participate!

SATURN 2013 covers many topics in a variety of areas relevant to software architecture and delivering quality systems; but there might be one topic that you are passionate about that is missing. Or SATURN coverage of a topic may not be as deep as you would like, and you may want to share and learn more. This year, SATURN will provide the opportunity for you to explore topics of your choice at the Open Space on Wednesday May 2, 4:15-5:15 PM.

Record Attendance at SATURN 2013; Tutorials Available; Special Events Planned

The international software architecture community has responded to this year’s SATURN technical program by setting a new attendance record for the SEI Architecture Technology User Group (SATURN) Conference. SATURN, now in its 9th year, will be held at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from April 29 to May 3, 2013, and registration is still open. Currently 181 people are registered to attend, breaking the previous SATURN attendance record of 166 attendees in 2011.

International Workshop on the Engineering of Mobile-Enabled Systems (MOBS 2013)

International Workshop on the Engineering of Mobile-Enabled Systems (MOBS 2013)
in conjunction with ICSE 2013, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A., May 25, 2013
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/community/mobs2013/

Registration for MOBS 2013 is open. Take advantage of early-bird rates until April 14, 2013.

Background

Mobile apps are becoming important in enterprise and mission-critical systems that make use of contextual information to optimize resource usage and drive business and operational processes. Mobile technology is also reaching people in the field across multiple domains, to help with various tasks such as speech and image recognition, natural language processing, decision making, and mission planning.

5th International Workshop on Principles of Engineering Service-Oriented Systems (PESOS 2013)

5th International Workshop on Principles of Engineering Service-Oriented Systems (PESOS 2013)
in conjunction with ICSE 2013, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
May 26, 2013
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/community/pesos2013/

Registration for PESOS 2013 is open. Take advantage of early-bird rates until April 14, 2013.

Background

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and service-oriented systems, which are built using the SOA paradigm, are now in the stage of widespread adoption, according to Gartner’s Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies. Influenced by the stabilizing of certain standards for service integration, and driven by IT cost savings, organizations are starting to incorporate external software services into their systems. Some of these services are hosted in the cloud. From a provider perspective, many commercial companies such as Oracle, SAP, Intuit, and Netflix either have cloud-based offerings of their products or run their businesses completely in the cloud.

SATURN 2013 Program Highlights from Conference Program Chairs

As program chairs for SATURN 2013, we would like to provide you an overview of the presentation program (note: information about keynotes by Stephan Murer, Scott Berkun, and Mary Poppendieck, the invited talk by Philippe Kruchten, and tutorial highlights is already available in other blog posts).

We received many high quality submissions covering the topics of front-end architecture, back-end architecture, methods and tools, and technical leadership. In total we got contributions from more than 40 companies and organizations across three continents.

On Wednesday morning you have the tough choice to decide between three great sessions. For example, Harald Wesenberg from Statoil speaks about architecting for the long term in Session 1. In Session 2, Chris Armstrong presents ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 in action, while Session 3 deals with agile practices at scale.

Learn and Practice Architectural Coaching at SATURN

In Felix Bachmann’s tutorial at SATURN 2013 on Monday, April 29 titled Architectural Coaching, you will learn the essentials of how to successfully coach an architecture team in designing a software system that fulfills what the stakeholders want within the given constraints, such as budget and time.

You will learn about the importance of a product vision, the architecting process, and the soft skills required to lead a successful team.

In group exercises, you will work with a team to produce the product vision, which gives the team direction and motivation.

Learn About Risk- and Cost-Driven Architecture (RCDA) at SATURN

In his tutorial on Tuesday, April 30 at SATURN 2013 titled Pragmatic Solution Architecting with Risk- and Cost-Driven Architecture (RCDA), Eltjo Poort, lead expert on solution architecture at CGI (formerly Logica), will present a solution-architecture approach tailored to today’s complex architecting environment. RCDA combines practices from enterprise and software architecture. Its risk-and-cost focus centers the approach on concrete drivers and helps teams to explain their architectural choices to managers and other business stakeholders in terms that they can understand.

RCDA practices were originally used within CGI to shape solutions for clients. The approach is based on well-vetted research work in Poort’s PhD thesis titled “Improving Solution Architecture Practices,” and has been successful within CGI, where 78% of lead architects trained in RCDA report that the training has made them more effective at their jobs.

Pragmatic Solution Architecting with Risk- and Cost-Driven Architecture (RCDA) has not been offered frequently in the U.S., so we encourage SATURN attendees to consider registering at the SATURN 2013 software architecture conference registration page. For more information, see Eltjo Poort’s blog.

 

Workshop on Managing Technical Debt at ICSE 2013

Fourth International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt at ICSE 2013
San Francisco, California, May 20, 2013
Invited Speaker: Steve McConnell

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/community/td2013/

On May 20, 2013, we will be conducting a workshop in conjunction with the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2013) in San Francisco to scrutinize the diverse issues that are related to technical debt and the software development lifecycle.

Managing technical debt is a broad concern of software engineering that blends research and practice. This can be seen from the program that covers topics such as models for measuring and optimizing technical debt, economic models, tool support, managing dependencies, empirical studies, and use of the metaphor and related techniques in practice. To encourage interactive discussion, brainstorming, and community building the workshop will consist of short presentations from the accepted papers. These short presentations will provide a basis for the participants to investigate further open research questions and challenges in practice. It is for that purpose that the program includes sessions dedicated to open discussion.

We invite members of the software engineering community to join us. The details of the program and other logistics are at our workshop site.

– Robert Nord, SEI

Free Download of SATURN 2013 Keynote Speaker Scott Berkun’s Book of Essays

For the next 48 hours, the updated edition of SATURN 2013 Keynote Speaker Scott Berkun’s popular book of essays, Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds is available for free for download in all ebook editions.

This 1.1 edition has more than 100 minor corrections, typo fixes, and little polishes making it the best version ever of this collection of Berkun’s writings over the last decade.

At SATURN, Berkun will speak at 1:15 pm on Wednesday, May 1 on WordPress.com and the Future of Work.

Download Mindfire now.

SATURN 2013 Super-Early-Bird Registration Expires March 10

If you are a practicing or aspiring software architect, the SEI Software Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) 2013 Conference offers courses, presentations, tutorials, and talks providing technical advice and knowledge around four architectural themes:

• Front-end architectures: impact of living on the edge
• Back-end architectures and application hosting: go to the cloud or stay on the ground?
• Methods and tools: go with the flow or go your own way?
• Technical leadership: hard skills and soft skills

SATURN 2013 will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 29 through May 3, 2013. Register for the SATURN software architecture conference before March 10 at  to save $300 off the regular registration fee.

SATURN will feature thought-provoking and inspiring keynote and invited talks from leaders in the fields of software architecture and software development:

• Stephan Murer, Credit Suisse: 15 Years of SOA at Credit Suisse: Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges
• Scott Berkun, author and frequent contributor at publications including Harvard Business Review and Business Week: WordPress.com and the Future of Work
• Mary Poppendieck, author and expert on Lean development: Learning to Surf
• Philippe Kruchten, leader and innovator in the field of software architecture for 35 years: Games Architects Play: On Reasoning Fallacies, Cognitive Biases, and Politics