Software Engineering Institute

June 3, 2010—Software, system, and enterprise architecture practitioners and experts from around the world convened from May 17 to 21 for the sixth annual SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference where they participated in lively exchanges about developing, acquiring, and maintaining software-intensive systems.

The SATURN Conference is held annually to provide a forum at which architects at all levels meet to share ideas and experiences, network, and learn about new and existing technologies. Previously held near the SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, the SATURN Conference went on the road for the first time this year to Minneapolis.

“The SATURN Conference has continued to grow over the past several years. With increasing interest in the conference as well as our other SATURN activities, we wanted to continue fostering the growth of the network. One of these ways included taking the conference on the road,” said Ipek Ozkaya, conference co-chair.

Across five days of tutorials, courses, and sessions, SATURN 2010 drew 160 attendees, the highest number in the conference’s six-year history. There were 14 countries and more than 70 organizations represented, as well as strong support from the technical community in Minneapolis and nearby areas.

Presented in collaboration with IEEE Software magazine, the program included keynote addresses from luminaries from the Agile movement and the Smart Grid, which incited lively discussions and the exchanging of ideas throughout the week. The conference also featured a new session in which attendees discussed common architecture situations as well as an interactive session that allowed attendees to play Hard Choices, a board game that aims to help players recognize, develop, and learn strategies for managing uncertainty, risk, options, and technical debt.

The 2010 SATURN Conference also saw some other firsts, including the honoring of two outstanding presenters during the first-ever SATURN Awards, this year sponsored by IEEE Software. The awards were created to honor the best presenters for their contributions to architecture-centric practices. Recipients of the awards were selected by attendee vote. This year's awardees were

IEEE Software SATURN 2010 Architecture in Practice Presentation Award
     Anthony Tsakiris, Ford Motor Company
     Managing Software Interfaces of On-Board Automotive Controllers

IEEE Software SATURN 2010 New Directions Presentation Award
     Olaf Zimmermann, IBM Research GmbH
     An Architectural Decision Modeling Framework for SOA and Cloud Design

Additionally, following the conference, representatives from IEEE Software and the SEI selected six presenters who will be invited to submit papers on the topics of their presentations for consideration for publication in the January/February 2011 issue of IEEE Software.

“The collaboration with our colleagues at IEEE Software added an extraordinary dynamic to this year’s SATURN Conference, including the addition of new elements and exceptional talks by IEEE speakers, Phillipe Kruchten and Linda Rising,” said Ozkaya.  “We are thrilled to have had IEEE Software as a partner for the SATURN 2010 Conference and we are already brainstorming ideas for how we can continue our collaboration in the future.”
Keynote and speaker presentations from the SATURN 2010 Conference are available for download at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/saturn/2010/. For more information on SATURN and news about the SATURN 2011 Conference, please visit the SATURN website.