Joint IASA & SeaSPIN Event: The Secret Lives of Architects April 3, 2012

April 3, 6:30-8pm
Joint Meeting: Seattle Chapter - International Association of Software Architects
- and -
the Seattle & Eastside Software Process Improvement Network
Free and Open to the Software Engineering & IT Community
http://seaspin.org
----------------------------

SolutionsIQ. 10785 Willows Rd NE, Suite 250, Redmond, WA [Map]
Food & networking from 5:45 to 6:15 (pizza, salad, soda )
Announcements from 6:15 to 6:30
Presentation from 6:30 to 7:45
Q & A from 7:45 to 8:15
Doors close at 8:30
----------------------------

The Secret Lives of Architects
by Andy Ruth & Andrea Cifor
There are a host of dirty little secrets hidden in any organizations architecture. Whether due to entropy or short term vision, we have all seen the disconnectedness and silos that form across the enterprise and translate to inconvenient workarounds and manual effort. Many of those secrets will eventually rear their ugly heads unless addressed face to face.

Along comes the architect.
Just as tools and technologies have evolved with the sophistication and breadth of Software and IT, so has the architect. Architects are becoming much more visible across technology verticals and organizations, influencing implementation strategy and tactical efforts, standards and governance, and other aspects of modern software and solution delivery. But there is always more to the story.

This presentation describes the role and value of modern architects, the interplay with other product stakeholders, the long-view perspective they enable, different perceptions that are encountered, and more. With the range of business models and new technologies (e.g. web, SaaS, Mobile, Cloud) and the need to preserve and extend the application opportunity created by development, understanding the architect and their challenges can benefit all involved.
Speaker Bios
Over the past decade, Andy Ruth has been a practicing architect and leader in the technical community, seeking to further define and promote the professional IT architect. While at Microsoft, he led efforts to describe the skills and expertise of the successful architect and created a publicly available certification program and community environment. Today, Andy helps enterprises implement or evolve their EA practice. He also is creating tools and community to help bring architectural best practices to the small and medium business space.

Andrea Cifor is a Program Manager at Microsoft in SQL Engineering Services. Her focus has been leveraging information and driving experiences to simplify complex processes. An observer of human and system interactions, her work goes beyond UX and BI to develop the next generation of information systems. Her industry experience includes work in Telecom, Marketing, Advertising and e-Commerce. Andrea is an CITA-P Certified Information Architect as well as Six Sigma and LEAN certified.