Bredemeyer Consulting

Resources for Software and Systems Architects

Architects Architecting Architecture

Software architecture is getting a lot of attention. Is it just the silver bullet du jour? We think not. It surely is critical to today's business success, yet it requires technical, business and organizational talents and skills that warrant their own path of career development, education, and research.

This site organizes a variety of resources to help enterprise architects and software architects deepen and expand their understanding of architecture and the role of the architect.

The Discipline of Architecture

What is software architecture?
How do I create an architecture?
Who is right for the architect role?
Why should we pay attention to architecture?
Where does architecture fit in development?

Upcoming Workshops

Technical Leadership:

Technical Leadership Masterclass:

Open enrollment in 2021. The prices are given as [early enrollment price/enrollment price]. Early enrollment ends on May 6th.
- Remote: July 6 and July 13, 10am - 1pm, ET [$400/$600]

Software Architecture:

Internal workshops and consulting

Software Architecture Workshop For remote classes in 2021, and to reduce Zoom overload, we have split the Software Architecture Workshop into 3 modules: Strategy for Technical Leaders, System Design for software architects and other system designers, and Organizational Dynamics and Soft Skills for Technical Leaders. These combine to cover essentially the same learning space, but can be taken as a bundle or separately. These will all have async work co-ordinated over Slack, and in-class work, co-ordinated over Zoom.
- Spring Session Remote (bundled or individual classes). The prices are given as [early enrollment price/enrollment price]. Early enrollment pricing is available until February 15th. All prices per person.
- Strategy for Technical Leaders Masterclass: April 13 and April 20, 12 - 3 pm ET (2 x 3 hr sessions) [$400/$600]
- System Design for Software Architects Workshop: May 4-6 and May 11-13 12 - 4 pm ET ( 6 x 4 hr sessions) [$1600/$2400]
- Organizational Dynamics for Technical Leaders Masterclass: May 25 and June 1, 12 - 3 pm ET (2 x 3 hr sessions) [$400/$600]
- Bundled tickets (for all 3 classes, purchased together): $2000/$3000
- Fall Session Remote (bundled or individual classes). The prices are given as [early enrollment price/enrollment price]. Early enrollment pricing is available until May 15th. All prices per person.
- Strategy for Technical Leaders Masterclass: September 7 and 14, 10 am - 1 pm ET (2 x 3 hr sessions) [$400/$600]
- System Design for Software Architects Workshop: September 28-30 and October 5-7, 10 am - 2 pm ET ( 6 x 4 hr sessions) [$1600/$2400]
- Organizational Dynamics for Technical Leaders Masterclass: October 19 and 26, 10 am - 1 pm ET (2 x 3 hr sessions) [$400/$600]
- Bundled tickets (for all 3 classes, purchased together): $2000/$3000

News

Decisions and Technical Leadership, a preview module from our Techanical Leadership Masterclass, 2019
Ruth Malan's slides, presented at the SEI SATURN Software Architecture Conference, 2019
Ruth Malan's slides (and notes), presented at the O'Reilly Software Architecture Conference, 2019
Ruth Malan was awarded the 2017 Linda Northrop Software Architecture Award. She presented the award acceptance keynote at SATURN 2017. The slides are at Slideshare.
Ruth Malan presented at O'Reilly's Software Architecture Conference 2016, April 11-12, New York. Here are the slides to her "The Architect's Clue Bucket" talk.
Ruth Malan presented a workshop titled Parkour for architects: a requisite variety workout and a presentation titled Design Visualization: Smoke and Mirrors at the Software Architect Conference in London in October, 2015. Here are annotated slides from her talk. Also in .pdf Design Visualization: Part I and on Slideshare.

Articles

Decisions Decisions, July 19, 2019
Architecture Decisions, March 9, 2019
Architecture Clues: Heuristics, Part i. SCARS, August 2018.
Architecture Clues: Heuristics, Part ii. Decisions and Change, October 2018.
Visual Agility: Why We Model, June 2018.
Exploring "The Code is the Design", January 2019.

Publications

"The Art of Change: Fractal and Emergent," by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, Cutter Consortium Enterprise Architecture Executive Report, Vol. 13, No. 5, 2010.
A paper on innovation and agile architecture by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, titled "'Getting Past "But...": Finding Opportunity and Making It Happen.' Cutter Consortium's August 2008 Enterprise Architecture Executive Report.
Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, "Enterprise Architecture as Strategic Differentiator," Enterprise Architecture Executive Report, Cutter Consortium, June 2005.
Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, What it Takes to be a Great Enterprise Architect, Executive Report, August 2004.
This report is also useful for solution or platform architects, as well as software architects.