Two SEI courses will be offered at SATURN 2012.

Software Architecture: Principles and Practices

Although the term software architecture is used frequently in today's software industry, its meaning is not universally understood.

• What is software architecture?
• How do you use software architectures in practice?
• What does a software architect do for an organization?
• What value does software architecture provide?

This course introduces the essential concepts of software architecture. A software architecture is an abstract view of a software system distinct from the details of implementation, algorithms, and data representation. Architecture is, increasingly, a crucial part of a software organization's business strategy. Software architectures can

• provide flexibility and adaptability in changing markets
• allow for interoperability with other players in the marketplace
• provide leverage of control in a marketplace
• help developers focus on a niche in the marketplace
• be used as a sales and marketing tool
• help reduce maintenance costs and amortize development costs
• assist in workforce organization and with project oversight and control
• establish a common corporate vocabulary
• shorten learning time

This two-day course emphasizes the importance of the business (or mission) context in which systems are designed and introduces participants to software architectures in a real-world setting. Case studies illuminate the key technical and organizational issues regarding software architectures.

Advanced Software Architecture Workshop

You can now directly put into practice your knowledge of successful architecture principles through the Advanced Software Architecture Workshop. In this workshop, you will apply what you’ve learned in other architecture courses offered by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) to a concrete architecture problem.

This course is helpful if you wish to enhance your architecting skills by receiving practical feedback as you address challenges.

The course eases the integration of classroom knowledge into your organization’s everyday practice. Despite consensus among SEI course participants that architecture-centric engineering skills are valuable, the chance to incorporate these skills is not always available. Organizational infrastructure, culture, and deadline pressures that don’t leave time for introducing process change can impede adoption of new practices.

Many organizations have embraced architecture-centric engineering methods and specifically software architecture practices to mitigate risk. The Advanced Software Architecture Workshop is designed to expedite the adoption of architecture-centric practices for all organizations. The goals of the course are for participants to become comfortable with the SEI architecture-centric engineering methods and able to use those methods effectively in their organizations. Course content is based on the SEI books Software Architecture in Practice, 2nd Edition, and Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond, 2nd Edition.

Using an actual architecture as an example, participants select a problematic scenario for the system, examine the possible weak points of the software architecture, decide on appropriate mitigations, review their proposed changes in groups, and revise the architecture as required. Time permitting, participants also prepare documentation for the development.

This two-day workshop guides the participants with four exercises through a typical architecture-improvement cycle in a concrete project setting. At the beginning, the participants are introduced to an architecture that has undergone evaluation through the SEI Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method® (ATAM)®. Participants then address any risks uncovered by the evaluation.

Who should attend?

This course is targeted to

• software architects and software lead designers who want to practice what they learned in the SEI software architecture curriculum
• seasoned software architects who want to get ready for a project that requires major architecture improvements

Topics

• Introduction
• Architecture Presentation
  • Workshop Exercise: Planning
  • Workshop Exercise: Design
  • Workshop Exercise: Peer Review
  • Workshop Exercise: Revise Design
• Acquisition Context
• Summary

Objectives

The course provides attendees with in-depth coverage of the concepts needed to effectively improve existing architectures. After attending, participants will have a better understanding of

• improving architecture through a defined process
• analyzing and planning architecture tasks
• improving an existing architecture design
• conducting a scenario-based peer review
• preparing the architecture documentation to support conformance of the implementation

Prerequisites

Before registering for this course, participants must

• complete the Software Architecture: Principles and Practices course, which is available as instructor-led classroom training and as eLearning, and
• complete the Documenting Software Architectures course;
• or, obtain SEI waiver acknowledging equivalent software architecture knowledge. All requests for waivers must be submitted to course-info@sei.cmu.edu before the start of the course and should detail educational background and software architecture professional experience.

Materials

Students will receive a notebook, which includes copies of all slides and exercises.