IASA Meeting - Profiling the Agile Architect

Thursday August 17th, 6-8 pm

FGM 4th Floor

12021 Sunset Hills Road Suite 400, Reston, VA 20190

From Dulles Toll Road (267) take exit to Reston Parkway, turn right
after ramp, take first left at Sunset Hills Road, take second left
into parking lot, park on right side.

Topic: "Profiling the Agile Architect"

Abstract:

At first glance, agile methodologies seem to de-emphasize the role of the software architect. One of the principles of the agile manifesto states that "the best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams." Nevertheless, in my work leading and coaching agile teams, I have observed that having an effective architect on the project is essential to the overall success of the project and of the system being built. In this talk I describe a profile of the ideal architect on an agile software development team. I discuss this person's day-to-day activities, and explain how an individual with good architectural skills integrates themselves with a team that is evolving the design incrementally and striving for "the simplest thing that could possibly work."

Speaker:

Jeff Nielsen is Chief Scientist at Digital Focus, where he trains and mentors teams and individuals in the use of agile methodologies. Jeff has over 19 years of commercial software development experience, and has architected a number of mission-critical and enterprise-level systems. Since spearheading the first large-scale XP project at Digital Focus, he has spent much of the past six years coaching agile teams for clients including America Online, Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae, and FHLB.

http://www.iasahome.org/iasaweb/appmanager/home/chapterdetail