SATURN 2010 Conference Articles Published in Jan/Feb Issue of IEEE Software

In the January/February 2011 issue of IEEE Software, readers will find four articles that came out of the SATURN 2010 Conference program.

The technical articles include Tony Tsakiris’ report on experiences at Ford and Olaf Zimmermann’s results from work at IBM Zurich. Tsakiris and Zimmermann were both also recipients of the outstanding presentation awards that were given for the first time in a SATURN conference in 2010. The same issue includes an insights piece from Arthur Wright about his experiences of evolving existing systems to changing business needs at Credit Suisse. Also featured in the January/February issue is a technical article by Grace Lewis from the SEI discussing engineering lessons learned from service-oriented systems.

IEEE Software to Publish Articles by SATURN 2010 Presenters

Documenting experiences is an important aspect of creating enduring value from lessons learned. As a practitioner conference, SATURN has been focused on presentations and interactive learning without any paper proceedings. However, as our audience expanded and the discipline of software and system architecture matured, capturing some of the lessons discussed for posterity and later reference became a frequently repeated request.

Paul Clements on certified software architects

In the November/December issue of IEEE Software, Paul Clements of the SEI writes in the Career Development column about certified software architects. Here is the abstract:

Are software architecture certifications worthwhile? At a recent Software Engineering Institute architecture conference, certification programs from Boeing, Raytheon, Siemens, the International Association of Software Architects, and the SEI were presented and compared. This article captures the comparison, and offers some advice about engaging in certification activities and (if you’re an organizational manager) setting up your own program.

SATURN 2010 Best Presentation Awards (reprinted from IEEE Software)

IEEE Software sponsored two outstanding presenter awards during the Sixth Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference, in May 2010. The awards were created to honor presenters for their contributions to architecture-centric practices. The awards, the first ever at a SATURN conference, were conferred based directly on conference attendees’ votes.

Architects of Change at SATURN 2010

What a month it has been: busy, tiring, but full of energy and thought-provoking exchanges!

SATURN attendance has been growing steadily since its inception in 2005, and this year’s conference was no exception with attendees from 14 countries, representing more than 70 organizations. More importantly, the level of sincerity in sharing lessons learned through the presentations and the spirit of collaboration beyond the sessions that spilled into the evening activities was remarkable. Attendees were busy learning from each other and exchanging ideas until the minute their shuttles were ready to take them to the airport Friday afternoon (me included—I had to run out of the door.)

Here are my takeaways from this year’s conference, which is by no means an all-inclusive list, nor does it cover all the high quality presentations:

SATURN Presenters Honored at First-Ever IEEE Software SATURN Awards

As the second SATURN 2010 Conference day came to a close, we gathered to recognize two outstanding presenters during the first-ever IEEE Software SATURN Awards.

The IEEE Software SATURN Awards were created to honor the best and brightest presenters for their contributions to architecture-centric practices. Recipients of the awards were selected by attendees vote during the SATURN 2010 Conference. The honorees include

Anthony Tsakiris, Ford Motor Company
Managing Software Interfaces of On-Board Automotive Controllers
IEEE Software SATURN 2010 Architecture in Practice Presentation Award
Awarded to the presentation that best describes “lessons learned” in applying architecture-centric practices. The lessons and ideas described can be applied by others and help them to improve their use of architecture-centric practices.

Olaf Zimmermann, IBM Research GmbH
An Architectural Decision Modeling Framework for SOA and Cloud Design
IEEE Software SATURN 2010 New Directions Presentation Award
Awarded to the presentation that best describes ideas on the horizon where architecture-centric practices can assist innovation and change in today’s practices to deliver better systems faster.

Please congratulate these outstanding SATURN 2010 presenters as you see them.

SATURN 2010 TECHdotMN Session Notes, SOA/Cloud Computing Parallel Sessions, Thursday, May 20

SATURN 2010 / TECHdotMN field notes
by Mike Bollinger 5/20/10

Cloud Computing Architecture by Dr. Gerald Kaefer

As a product manager working in sectors of health care and energy optimization inside Siemens, Gerald discusses the opportunities and challenges of increasing awareness internally for Cloud Computing – what’s changing and how to respond to that.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service-provider interaction (Source: NIST Cloud Computing Project, http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v14.doc).

SATURN 2010 TECHdotMN Session Notes, Wayne Longcore Keynote, Thursday, May 20

SATURN 2010 / TECHdotMN field notes
by Mike Bollinger 5/20/10

Keynote Address: Wayne Longcore

Wayne Longcore discusses the agile architecture methodology that his team used to create the “smart grid,” a high-functioning ultra-large-scale system. His talk was titled “Managing Scale and Agility: Transformational Architecture for the Smart Grid.”

SATURN 2010: Panel on Certification

Panelists:

• Rolf Siegers, Raytheon
• Don O’Connell, Boeing
• Frances Paulisch, Siemens AG
• Andy Ruth, International Association of Software Architects (IASA)
• Linda Northrop, SEI

Moderated by Paul Clements.

Each speaker gave brief overview of their organizations’ certification programs. Then each speaker presented concuding thoughts about certification programs for architects. Discussion and questions were welcomed throughout.

Here are excerpts and highlights:

Raytheon: Targeted for senior systems or enterprise architect practitioners. Companywide initiative that identifies, instructs, and assesses Raytheon’s top systems and enterprise architects. Intended to establish cadre of senior architects to develop architectures that meet Raytheon needs and mentor next generation of architects. Started in 2004. 150+ fully certified, 115+ others fully trained. Rest are at various stages. Certification is a mechanism to curtail “business-card architects.”

SATURN 2010: Notes from Wayne Longcore’s Keynote

Wayne Longcore, Managing Scale and Agility: Transformational Architecture for the Smart Grid

North American power grid is an ultra-large-scale (ULS) system. Cisco has said that it believes the Smart Grid will be 1000 times larger than today’s internet. When the electric grid went down in 2003, society was disrupted. The power grid must be adaptable. One of the defining characteristics of ULS systems is that, while pieces of the system might fail at times, the system as a whole must remain operational.

“I didn’t know the SEI term ULS system then, but I’d have used it had I known it.”