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.

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

Discounted SEI Courses Offered at SATURN 2013

Attendees at SATURN 2013 will have the opportunity to take two popular two-day SEI training courses, Software Architecture Design and Analysis and Advanced Topics in Service-Oriented Architecture, at $500 off the regular course-registration fee. These two-day courses are offered on April 29 and 30, 2013.

Architecture-Centric Engineering in the Financial Industry, Part Two

Last week, we posted a link here to an article at the SEI blog about how Bursatec, the technology arm of Groupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV, the Mexican Stock Exchange), used architecture-centric engineering to respond to its challenges.

Part two of this article was posted today: Using Team Software Process (TSP) to Architect a New Trading System, by James McHale.

Case Study: Architecture-Centric Engineering in Financial Industry

Bursatec, the technology arm of Groupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV, the Mexican Stock Exchange), recently embarked on a project to replace three existing trading engines with one system developed in house. Given the competitiveness of global financial markets and recent interest in Latin American economies, Bursatec needed a reliable and fast new system that could work ceaselessly throughout the day and handle sharp fluctuations in trading volume. To meet these demands, the SEI suggested combining elements of its Architecture Centric Engineering (ACE) method, which requires effective use of software architecture to guide system development, with its Team Software Process (TSP), which teaches software developers the skills they need to make and track plans and produce high-quality products. This post at the SEI blog by Felix Bachmann—the first in a two-part series—provides a case study of how Bursatec used architecture-centric engineering to respond to its challenges.

A Lesson Learned in Project Agility: Using Architecture-Centric Engineering on a TSP Project

We learned an important lesson recently about breaking down barriers between architects and developers when we were challenged to deliver the architecture in smaller increments and shorter iterations.

In winter 2009/2010 we had the opportunity to participate in a project with Bursatec, the IT arm of La Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (the Mexican Stock Exchange), to replace its main online stock trading engine with one that would also incorporate trading of other financial instruments such as options and futures. The project had aggressive goals for performance and delivery, and as the face of Mexico’s financial markets to the world, the new trading engine needed to function flawlessly.

SATURN 2010 TECHdotMN Session Notes, Wednesday, May 19

SATURN 2010 / TECHdotMN field notes
by Jeff Pesek 5/19/10

Architecturally Focused Techniques for Managing System Evolution by William Koscho

Based on the premise that business strategy, process and units will inevitably change – the architect’s objectives are to: (a) understand/accept potential changes in the environment, (b) manage relationships between the environment and the architecture and (c) minimize the risk of the implementing change.

“Is this strategic change we want to invest in or is it arbitrary and therefore cost-sensitive?” Mr. Koscho asks in describing the internal thought process.

Architecture design from the trenches (Changes of operations in interaction diagrams)

I am working with Bursatec, the technology company of the Mexican stock exchange on the architecture design for a new system. Bursatec is using the SEI’s Attribute-Driven Design (ADD) method embedded in a Team Software Process (TSP) environment for designing the new system. They also use the tool “Enterprise Architect” for documenting the system’s software architecture.

Last week, when working with Bursatec’s architecture team, they showed a nice little rule they implemented for using the design tool. Since I believe that many architects have the same problem when using a design tool, I thought it would be worthwhile sharing their solution.

BoF on Traceability

Birds of a Feather Sessions (BoFs) are informal gatherings for discussing of a topic of interest, often without a pre-planned agenda. Ron Koontz from Boeing achieved exactly that when he gathered a crowd of about 25 people to share experiences on his current problem of how to achieve traceability between requirements, architecture, and code.