Get Involved in SEI Research

The SEI is conducting a survey to understand more about the extent to which architectural concerns play a role in agile software development. In particular, the goal of this survey is to understand some of the existing practices used to quantify architecture. This topic is of growing importance. As successful agile techniques are applied to larger and larger projects, they require increased visibility into the architecture of the system. Your participation is important to allow the SEI to correctly characterize the nature of the problem and to understand some solutions that people have found useful.

SATURN 2013 Web and Cloud Architecture Design Session (notes)

Notes by Frank M. Rischner

The Design Space of Modern HTML5/JavaScript Web Applications
Marcin Nowak and Cesare Pautasso, University of Lugano

Whenever we create a web application, we have to decide where the application runs, either on the server side or on the client side. When using HTML5, we push everything but the data to the client.

In the example scenario, the server is treated as the database, and the browser is seen as a terminal. There are several Model View interaction patterns: Model View Controller Pattern, Model View Presenter Pattern, and Model View ViewModel Pattern, which is the most flexible one of the patterns. Most recent movements apply the “Model View *” pattern, which leaves out the controller.

SATURN 2013 Agile II Session (notes)

Notes by Ian De Silva

The Conflict Between Agile and Architecture: Myth or Reality?
Simon Brown, Coding the Architecture

Agile is about working in small increments, getting feedback, and improving the process or product. Architecture is about structure and vision. There is no conflict between agile and architecture because every software project has an architecture. There is, however, a conflict in the approach and team structure.

SATURN 2013 Agile I Session (notes)

Notes by Ian De Silva

Introducing Agile in Large-Scale Projects
Vladimir Koncar, Ericsson Nikola Tesla
Drago Holub, Ericsson Nikola Tesla
Zoran Kokolj, Ericsson Nikola Tesla
Emina Filipovic-Juric, Ericsson Nikola Tesla
Josko Bilic, Ericsson Nikola Tesla

In this talk, Koncar described his team’s experiences using agile on a large-scale telecom project at Ericsson. This hardware-dependent project was estimated to be about 10 million lines of code, requiring the work of 100 developers for two years. Because of hardware-plan instability, uncertain requirements, and sensitive time to market, agile was the development methodology of choice. In particular, they used Scrum with long-term, cross-functional teams.

SATURN 2013 Method Tailoring and Extensibility Session (notes)

Notes by Brendan Foote

Design and Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems: AADL and Avionics Systems
Julien Delange and Peter Feiler, SEI

Architectural decisions affect nonfunctional requirements, which are critical to the safety of systems. Rework costs increase the later a defect is detected in the software development life cycle. In Delange’s experience, a $10,000 architecture-phase correction can save $3 million! These errors can be caused by mismatched assumptions in embedded software. One anecdote is a train on which the doors wouldn’t close, so the conductor stepped outside to push them closed. But the system assumes the conductor is inside, so the train automatically took off. Dual core laptops also violated many assumptions that developers had made up to that time. To put it glibly, if we can’t get iTunes right on dual core machines, how are we supposed to make safe airplanes with even more complicated hardware?

SATURN 2013 Keynote: WordPress.com and the Future of Work, Scott Berkun

Notes by Frank M. Rischner, Ian De Silva, and Brendan Foote

Keynote Address: WordPress.com and the Future of Work
Scott Berkun, ScottBerkun.com

Berkun is the author of the forthcoming A Year Without Pants, a reflection on his time working as a team lead for WordPress.com, and four other books. Before that, he was a Microsoft employee and worked on Internet Explorer and Windows. He saw a lot of differences between those two working environments, which his book aims to articulate. At WordPress.com, people are distributed globally (hence, no one has to go to work or “wear pants”). They also get to meet up in cool places like Athens.

SATURN 2013 Sustainability and Security Session (notes)

Notes by Frank M. Rischner

Architecting Long-Lived Systems
Harald Wesenberg and Einar Landre, Statoil
Arne Wiklund, Kongsberg

Statoil uses environmental-monitoring software for monitoring the impacts of their oil business on the environment. Statoil struggled to build a system that would live for a long time. Making sure there is no impact on the environment, how do we build a system that lives for 70 years and adapts to changes?

• Don’t monitor the major events like oils spills; monitor the little things and their impacts on the environment.
• Use agile projects, since there are a huge number of unknowns in the unknowns.
• Use stacking capabilities and business capabilities. Those business capabilities are driven by value, are measurable, and provide actions. Each capability is a small enterprise-architecture element.

SATURN 2013 Keynote Address: 15 Years of SOA at Credit Suisse: Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges, Stephan Murer

Notes by Frank M. Rischner, Ian De Silva, and Brendan Foote

SATURN 2013 Keynote Address: 15 Years of SOA at Credit Suisse: Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges

Stephan Murer, Credit Suisse

Murer works for Credit Suisse, which finds competitive advantage in creating their own systems, rather than outsourcing that work to software vendors. The company handles a large-scale user base, with almost 67,750 users in 550 locations. The data is managed and stored in four main data centers. Currently, Credit Suisse manages about 6,400 applications as well as about 70,000 email accounts. The volume of the applications developed in-house is about 200 million lines of code. The number of managed applications at Credit Suisse is of course lower than in any app store, but the focus is more on the integration of the applications. The largest scalability concern Murer sees coming is storage, for example, if regulators require them to start recording video conferences for compliance reasons.

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.