SATURN 2018

The perceptions of Evolutionary Architecture have progressed rapidly from something considered heretical to something considered essential yet challenging. The shift has resulted from changes in both the business climate with its need for rapid innovation and the supporting technology that makes Evolutionary Architecture feasible. Describing these changes sets up a discussion about the mechanics of implementing an evolutionary architecture. We'll particularly focus on the central role of fitness functions in driving the architecture in the desired direction and how techniques such as refactoring databases and continuous delivery support architectural evolution. We'll close by looking at what the future holds.

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Azure Table storage, a NoSQL data service in the cloud. Schemaless and with JSON compatibility, it’s simple and it does its job well. But everything great has its pitfalls.

Join in this lightning talk to look at and investigate the wonders and the mysteries, the shocks and the no-nos of using Azure Table storage. We will look at sample code, setting up and using the storage in action. Most notably, the program also looks at performance metrics, comparing Azure Table storage to other data services. Is this the thing for you? Find out!

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Architecture contains the potential to guide the development of big enterprise in the right direction, connecting the existing IT portfolio to the business functions and using this as a map to guide future development. This talk will show you how we have set up a company-wide network of architects both on the business side and on the IT side that work together. They span the different business functions in order to handle both the internal architecture for each business function and, more importantly, the interface between the business functions. A key part of this is taking advantage of new ways of working, such as design thinking and DevOps—as well as new technology, such as microservices, machine learning, Hadoop data lakes, and web-based and mobile clients.

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As Don Tapscott once said, “The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information. The second generation—powered by blockchain technology—is bringing us the Internet of value: a new, distributed platform that can help us reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better.”

Traditional consensus algorithms like proof-of-work are inefficient at scale, and smart contracts are limited to a single ecosystem. However, by creating a “blockchain of blockchains” architecture, more complex event-driven architectures can be created using separate ecosystems that are independently validated. For example, a smart city could be programmed to execute an emergency shutdown if certain criteria are met. A designer of this system would want to make absolutely sure that the conditions were true before executing a threat response of this magnitude. By having each IoT sensor group that measures a specific environmental condition on its own “sidechain” network, and sharing their ‘state’ to a main authoritative blockchain network, one can create data integrity checks that prevent these programs from triggering by accident in a fault tolerant and distributed manner.

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A neuroscientist, a radiologist, and an engineer walk into a bar...sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. In reality it marked the beginning of a collaboration to develop a virtual reality app to improve education about concussions among college football players. Concussions are one of the most important public health problems that spans multiple sports including soccer, hockey, wrestling, and other contact sports. This presentation will highlight the development process of the virtual reality app and the lessons learned from the experience working with athletes, soldiers, physicians, and psychologists.
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Join us to watch the Fish Sticks Comedy folks perform improv skits based on software architecture!

Unwind and have a little fun with your fellow SATURN attendees during this improvisational presentation game! A selection of random slide decks will be prepared in advance to be presented by brave volunteers. Fame and prizes await those who seize the day!

Rules:

1. The presenter cannot see the slides before presenting.
2. The presenter delivers each slide in succession without skipping slides or going back.
3. The presentation ends when all slides are presented, or after 6 minutes, whichever comes first.

Sign-up sheets will be available near the Registration Table.

Software architecture has been a mainstream discipline since the 1990s and in that time has become a recognized, widely researched, and often valued part of the software engineering process. However, architecture approaches must reflect the technologies and priorities of the systems we are building, and in this regard its future has never looked more uncertain or more exciting. From our history of monolithic compile-time architecture, to many-tiered distributed systems, to Internet-connected services, we are now entering the era of cloud-hosted, microservice-based, pay-for-usage systems development. In this new world, the boundaries of “my” system are no longer so clear, and our systems are dissolving into complex webs of independently owned and evolved services, with nothing more in common than a shared credit card for billing and an agreement on the format of network requests. What can the history of software architecture tell us about the likely challenges in this environment? And how must it develop in order to meet them?
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We overload our terms a lot in this industry. "Coupling" is one such. That word covers situations ranging from essential to accidental to comical to cosmic. Coupling seems to be the root of all ills. It is the molasses that slows our every move. And yet, in the industry from which we borrowed the term, "coupling" was not a dirty word. It meant something ingenious. Let us contemplate coupling for a time and see what we can do about it.

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Since 2015, Michael and George have facilitated a workshop on the Monday before the SATURN Conference to bring together a group of interested and enthusiastic participants to focus on a topic that is emerging as important for software architects. The topic for 2018, Growing Great Software Designers, provided an opportunity to share what we have learned and are applying in our day jobs. Invited participants heard and shared stories of valiant attempts, grand strategies, energizing wins, and humbling defeats in this area. At the end of the workshop, the group worked to generalize and distill their discussions so that others can benefit from them. This debrief of the workshop will share with the SATURN community those suggestions, practices, ah-ha! moments, and challenges that must be overcome in today’s software shops.
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