Knowledge Matters

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Archive for category Architecture

High Schools get in on DreamSpark

Apr 8

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture | No Comments

One of the things that was interesting last year at Maker Faire Austin was how many students are really excited about technology, software, and development in general.  Well, that awareness is getting out as well and the DreamSpark program that was active with Universities is now open to High Schools as well. 

What does that mean? 

Short version – Students get access to Professional Design and Development tools for their use to learn and build their skills.

You can get the long version at:

https://www.dreamspark.com/FAQ/HighSchoolAdministratorFaq.aspx

Or just head over to www.dreamspark.com and get the full story.

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ArcReady Sessions are coming up again very soon.

Apr 7

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture | No Comments

Architecting for the Client Tier

The client (or presentation) tier of our applications is taking on an increasingly important role. Users are expecting more compelling user interfaces, but they also want more functionality from their applications. In this ArcReady we examine how to design and deliver well architected client applications that will be easy to maintain and extend.

Session 1: Trends and Patterns on the Client Tier

In our first session we will take a vendor and platform neutral look at some of the trends and emerging technologies that can be used on the client tier. We will look at techniques like Mashups, technologies like Natural User Interfaces (NUI) and the increasing importance of the mobile platform. We will also look at some common patterns that can be used in the architecture of the client tier.

Session 2: Applying Microsoft Technology on the Client Tier

In our second session we will take some look at how we can use Microsoft technologies to create well architected and compelling client applications. We will look at technologies like Silverlight and WPF that can be used to create compelling clients. We will also look at technologies that can be used to make your applications more extensible for future development. We will also examine some architectural guidance developed by the Microsoft Patterns and Practices group.

 

WHAT IS ARCREADY?

· A forum for aspiring and practicing architects to discuss industry trends

· An overview of Microsoft’s roadmap as it relates to software architecture

· A mechanism to solicit your feedback

· An opportunity to showcase the work you do!

 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Architects and Senior Developers who are interested in becoming an architect.

WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?

Events are held in 16 cities across Central Region. To register for this event, please visit www.arcready.com.

Location/Registration Date Time
Austin, TX 4/28/2009 9:00am – 11:45am
Houston, TX 5/12/2009 9:00am – 11:45am
Dallas, TX 5/19/2009 9:00am – 11:45am

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April Linked In User Group meeting.

Apr 7

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture | No Comments

Our April Speaker is going to be Greg Low. He’s a Microsoft MVP from down under.

Here is some information: Developers like queries that are very constrained. Users don’t. In this session, Greg will show how iFTS in SQL Server 2008 allows developers to build systems that answer the queries the users really want to ask. This session got great reviews when Greg delivered it at TechEd Developers in Barcelona recently.

About Greg Low: Greg is an internationally recognized consultant, developer and trainer. He has been working in development since 1978 and holds a PhD in Computer Science. Greg is the country lead for Solid Quality (www.solidq.com.au), a SQL Server MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director.

He is currently one of only two people in the world to hold the new Microsoft Masters certification for SQL Server 2008 and teaches internal SQL Server classes for Microsoft on their Redmond campus

LiveMeeting address: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=G2K4BH&role=attend&pw=PN6.%3CQ%5Drb

How-to: Join a LiveMeeting http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/livemeeting/HA102308521033.aspx

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Roles for SharePoint projects

Apr 3

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture, SharePoint | No Comments

One question that keeps coming up again and again is what should I look for in a SharePoint guy.  I get asked this a lot and from many different directions, but it’s a large enough topic that I’ve resisted following my rule and blogging the answer to any question I get asked more than once.  Recently I was held down and made two write down some of the advice I’ve been giving out over the years because I needed to give that answer to a very geographically dispersed group.  Since I finally put it down I thought I’d share it with a wider audience. 

You can find the slides that are used for this presentation at my slide sure link below.  But the main gist of it is that asking for a SharePoint “guy” is really not the best way to staff a successful SharePoint project (no surprises yet, I’m sure). SharePoint projects, and many shapes and sizes – just like general app dev projects.  They can be anything from intranets to knowledge management to document management to collaboration to, well, you get the idea. SharePoint projects can also vary in complexity from slight modifications of an out of box install two entire enterprise systems written on top of the SharePoint platform.

The first question has to be what type of project or you undertaking?  What is the scope?  How does it map to what SharePoint (in its various editions) already provide?  What functionality are you leveraging OUTSIDE of  SharePoint, and how much of it will stay where it is and how much should transition over?  What timeline are you looking at?  Will you be migrating content, and if so will you be migrating straight or will there be a cleanup/management step in there?  The list goes on.

When you actually have a good understanding of your goals, that’s when you choose what skill sets you are  looking for during the project cycle.  The deck shows some of the skill set and roles mappings that I’ve witnessed on various SharePoint projects.  It doesn’t dictate exactly which roles you absolutely need, how many in each role, or were multiple roles can be filled by single people on various projects.  Some projects I’ve seen have had literally hundreds of people from Architect Teams to content managers involved.  Some have had a single person wearing all of the hats on the project and working with other groups for the details.  So I wouldn’t dream of telling the team on the ground what they should do, but I hope the breakdown showing what I’ve seen in my experience can help advise them.  I’m sure they’ll be plenty of questions, I look forward to a lively debate in the comments section on this post.

Share Point skill sets

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MVC release under OSI approved License!

Apr 1

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture, Software/Tech | No Comments

No April Fool’s here – check out Scot Guthrie’s latest blog post.  MVC Framework from Microsoft has been released under the the OSI approved MS-PL license.  

You can read all about it at http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/04/01/asp-net-mvc-1-0.aspx

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BizSpark Program Guide for Startups

Mar 4

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture, Events | No Comments

I’ll be talking tomorrow at the Sustainable Startup event hosted by Green Technology Alliance.  For those following my blog – here’s a bit of homework for in the morning. 

There’s a great overview of the BizSpark program here.  I’ll be covering the details in my talk, but if you want to prep some questions for the Q&A or follow on discussions give it a read over!

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I have always loved the Vision videos.

Mar 3

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture | No Comments

You might have figured that out about me, I’ve been a fan since even before the original .Net launch vision videos.  Well, Office Labs dropped out another one of them last week – you can see the envisioning video here or the full series here.  There’s a lot in there. 

The only thing I missed was wearable computing – the flexible displays and Augmented Reality messages are the first thing that jumps out, but after you look at it for a while, you start seeing that pervasive P2P in the data sharing, the pervasive connectivity, the seamless and solid Identity management and access control.  The scary part to me is how close we are to having this level of infrastructure in at least islands today (even the flexible displays and smart environments exist in at least a primitive form now) but how much work we have to making this level of different systems from different vendors work so seamlessly for the end user.  But it WILL happen – we just have a lot of work to do to get there.

If you liked the videos, you can also find the slides that Stephen Elop used to talk to these points at the Wharton Business Tech Conference keynote week or watch his full presentation here.

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Startups everywhere

Mar 3

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture, Events | No Comments

I had a nice little blog post I was working up about StartupCamp Austin this past weekend (I still want to work up some more there- it was a great camp) but it seems like I’m getting swamped by Startup activities these days. 

Saturday was a great event with plenty of briefings, pitches, and super conversations going on.  This is the second time I’ve done StartupCamp Austin and each one is always a delight – the mix of ideas and execution and vision.  And I really did enjoy the fact that we explicitly called out that EVERYONE can do a startup – veterans and interns alike.StartupCamp Austin 003

 

One of the great presentations that was done was around the Capital Factory – a project to not just to mentor startups, but to execute on a 10 week program to kickstart startups with a bit of seed funding as well.  Check the site for the full details (note that I did see the BizSpark logo in the presentation!)

Coming up on Thursday we’ll be talking about startups and the sustainability market at the Green Technology Alliance event.  I’ll be talking a bit more about the BizSpark program and areas I’ve seen that makes Austin a great crossroads between sustainability and entrepreneurship.

I’ll spend the next week getting swamped by both .Net Dojo, ArcReady and trying to make the amazing number of startup sessions at SxSW Interactive, but on Monday the 16th the big startup event happens with the Accelerator event .

Oh, and if you’re not around Austin but still wanting to stay plugged in – CNet has some coverage of Demo 09 today as well – http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10173971-93.html

Pause – gasp.  I keep hearing on the news that everything’s slowing down, but I look around at our communities and the activity and energy really seems to be headed UP not down!

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Architecting for the Cloud is right around the corner!

Mar 2

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture, Events | No Comments

I’m behind on some of my event posts, but I was asked enough about when ArcReady is coming back around that I thought I need to drop it in pronto!  This ArcReady tour is starting in St Louis (Clint gets to be the point guy) but it’s coming to Austin the following week – March 10th (just in time to beat SxSWi).  Registration is Here – as usual, you can absolutely show up at the door, but if you register we can make sure to have enough breakfast for everyone.

Dallas will be next for the district, coming in on the 19th (Yes, that means I can’t hang around for all the music part of SxSW and it’s during Mix but if you’re not booked for either of those, here is where you register for that session – it’s back at our regular location after moving down to the convention center in the fall.

Houston rounds out our sessions on March 24th – info (you guessed it) here.  We had a good turnout last time with Houston, but we’re coming back this time with our Cloud Computing topic which I’ve gotten a lot of questions around during Houston TechFest so if you’d like to hear more about the industry as a whole and what Windows Azure means – this is the spot to be.

And as always – if you want to keep up with when each of the events happen in the 15 city tour, it’s always up to date on www.arcready.com

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ArcReady slides for our session on architecting modern distributed applications

Jan 6

Posted by PhilWheat in Architecture | No Comments

I was just talking with Omar about the different ways we architect our systems in an S+S world and he pointed out that in the blog move I evidently missed/lost/forgot the link for our ArcReady session on the subject.  So here is the replacement link to the slides from that tour.

http://www.slideshare.net/ArcReady/arcready-architecting-modern-distributed-applications-presentation

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