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DSM

DSM now a "fundamental skill" for all software architects

April 02, 2007 17:40:41 +0300 (EEST)

I'm proud on DSM's behalf to announce that it has been included as one of the fundamental skills for software architects in the IASA's skills library. Here's the first few paragraphs of the press release:

International Association of Software Architects Unveils First IT Architecture Skills Library
The industry’s first IT architecture skills library has been unveiled by the International Association of Software Architects (IASA), a 5,000-member association focused on defining and supporting the professional duties of IT architects. Consisting of more than 600 pages of information, the library is an invaluable resource for each primary skill of the practicing IT architect.
Besides information specific to information technology, software and infrastructure specializations, the library includes the fundamental skills necessary for all successful architects. The material is freely available to the community and will provide a solid foundation for an aspiring architect to understand the capabilities of a senior architect, regardless of specialization. It can also be invaluable in communicating the critical nature of architects to management, clients, and other decision-makers.
A collaborative effort of 75 practicing architects from around the world and commissioned by Microsoft, the library can be accessed for free at: www.IASAhome.org/web/home/skillset

There was quite some competition for some of the areas, so I count myself lucky to have been chosen as an author. Mind you, the requirements -- ten years as an architect, three on the subject -- did favor those few of us who happened on this area in its first flourishing in the early 90s, and haven't managed to find anything better to do since!

The IASA wanted the article to start with a first-person story, which after years of at least trying to write objectively did feel a bit like going back to the first grade: "at the weekend i went home and i watched telly with my Daddy and then we went outside and we played football"... It's only four paragraphs at the start of the article, but still it was painful to write about something I did that worked out well -- even if the discerning reader will know that it wasn't because I was at all impressive, but just simply that DSM works. Here's a taster:

I always remember the day when my bluff was called. I had just been handed 50 pages of Java code and was told, “Generate that!” I had always said that if you gave me a sufficiently precise model of a system, and the code that implements that system, I could build a code generator that would produce that system from the model.
While I normally prefer to work on code in a text editor, this task clearly called for more scalable weapons from the architect’s tool chest: hard copy, scissors, sticky tape, and the full palette of highlighter pens. Read on in the full article