Strolling in St. Petersburg, Florida

As SATURN 2012 approaches, look past the conference venue for a number of exciting things to do and see in St. Petersburg, Florida during your stay. Here is our take on the Top 5 Ways to Experience St. Pete:

1.     Peek Out From the Pier

The St. Petersburg Pier, a five-story inverted pyramid 3000 feet from the water’s edge, houses specialty shops, bars and restaurants, and the Pier Aquarium. Rent a bike at Wheel Fun Rentals and glide past palm trees and docked sailboats. Dive into the water for dolphin cruises, fishing, and boat rentals, or hang out on the Pier for live music on Sundays from 1pm-4pm.

SATURN 2012 – Architecture: Catalyst for Collaboration

Here at the SEI, we are excited to be planning for SATURN 2012, which we will hold in St. Petersburg, Florida on May 7-11, 2012. SATURN has grown in attendance, influence, and stature every year since its inception in 2005 as a small gathering of practitioners and SEI technical staff members. With another successful conference last year in San Mateo, California, SATURN is now a truly international conference with prestigious keynote speakers and a technical program that has become more ambitious in scope and engaging in content each year.

Along with the SEI SATURN Technical Committee–Ipek Ozkaya, Robert Nord, John Klein, and Soumya Simanta–I’m happy to announce the theme we have chosen for SATURN 2012 and invite you, our SATURN blog readers, to consider being a part of the SATURN technical program by submitting an abstract for a presentation or tutorial. Entering the third year of our mutually beneficial collaboration with IEEE Software magazine, we again offer to SATURN presenters the possibility that a paper based on their presentations will be featured in a future issue of IEEE Software. Papers from presentations at SATURN 2011 will be published in forthcoming issues this year.

As projects continue to grow in scale and complexity, effective collaboration across geographical, cultural, and technical boundaries is increasingly prevalent and essential to system success. SATURN 2012 will explore the theme of “Architecture: Catalyst for Collaboration.” We will include presentations, courses, and tutorials on

• collaboration in software development; for example, architecture in an Agile project
• collaboration in the context of mobile computing, cloud computing, social networking, open frameworks, and service-oriented architecture
• knowledge management for effective collaboration
• systems of systems and ultra-large-scale systems: how to achieve collaboration across independently funded and managed organizations
• multi-agent systems and collaboration among non-human entities such as software and networks
• collaborative design and architecture tools

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 Attendees Discuss Jim Highsmith Keynote

We took a few minutes to chat with a few SATURN 2010 attendees about their personal reactions to what they heard during Jim Highsmith’s Keynote talk, “Architects: Anchors or Accelerators to Organizational Agility”.

A View from the SATURN 2010 Conference

The view from the SATURN 2010 host Hilton Minneapolis!

Grow Your Professional Network at SATURN 2010

With dozens of members of the global community of software and systems experts gathered together, there’s no better place to share experiences, catch up with old friends, and make new connections than the SATURN 2010 Conference networking activities and events.

Birds of a Feather
Discuss varying topics of interest without a pre-planned agenda at informal gatherings designed to encourage networking and open discussion. Attendees can suggest and sign up for topics in the designated area at the conference. Birds of a Feather sessions will take place in the afternoon on Wednesday, May 19.

Hard Choices Game
Participate in an interactive session on Wednesday, May 19 where you can play a test version of Hard Choices, a board game that aims to help players recognize, develop, and learn strategies for managing uncertainty, risk, options, and technical debt.

SATURN Clinic
Join fellow architecture professionals of all experience levels on May 19 to discuss common architecture situations such as adopting new architectures and experiencing integration problems. The clinic will include a facilitated question and answer session, in which participants and experts can provide feedback, thoughts, ideas, experiences, and approaches to these situations.

Welcome Reception
Enjoy a relaxed evening of wonderful food, a cash bar, and mingling with fellow attendees on Wednesday evening.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Refreshments
Continental breakfast, a full lunch, and refreshment breaks are included each day of the conference and provide a great opportunity to network informally.

Learn more about the SATURN 2010 Conference networking events and activities in the online Preliminary Program.

SATURN 2010 Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for the sixth annual SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference, presented in collaboration with IEEE Software magazine in Minneapolis, Minn., from May 17 to 21.

The SATURN Conference is held every year to bring together experts from around the world to exchange best architecture-centric practices in developing, acquiring, and maintaining software-intensive systems.

Register for the conference and view the preliminary program at the SATURN 2010 website. SEI Members and subscribers of IEEE Software magazine get 15% off conference and tutorial fees.

Welcome to the SATURN Network Blog!

As we kick-off the fifth annual SATURN conference, we’re also excited to announce a new effort to engage architecture experts and practitioners: the SATURN Network Blog.