Great set of IT Architecture resources from Bredemeyer Consulting

Papers on Software Architecture, Architecting and Architects

• "Architect: What's in a Name?" by Ruth Malan, April 2006.
  "Architects and Accountability," by Ruth Malan, April 2006.
• "Key Architecture Decisions Template" (MS Word doc), by Anshu Gaind, October 2005.
• Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer wrote Cutter Consortium's June 2005 Enterprise Architecture Executive Report. It is titled "Enterprise Architecture as Strategic Differentiator." You can download a complimentary copy from http://www.cutter.com/offers/strategic.html
• Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, "What it Takes to be a Great Enterprise Architect," Enterprise Architecture Executive Report, Cutter Consortium, August 2004. Cutter is running a promotion, and you can download this issue free at http://www.cutter.com/offers/greatarchitect.html. This report is useful for solution, platform and software architects as well as Enterprise Architects.
• Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer have completed another chapter (draft) of the Software Architecture Action Guide book. See
  -- Meta-Architecture chapter: MetaArchitectureActionGuide.pdf, 237kb.
  -- Conceptual Architecture chapter: ConceptualArchitectureActionGuide.pdf.
  See Table of Contents to download drafts of chapters. Join our mailing list to receive updates.
• "Architecture as Business Competency", (ArchitectureAsBusinessCompetency.PDF, 97kb) by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, January 2004. January 15, 2004.
• We would like to thank the following reviewers who have given us feedback (see detail):
  - Claire Streb, Real Time Enterprises, Inc.
• We are privileged to be able to bring you "Chapter 7: Deployment Architecture" of Luke Hohman's new book, titled Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions, © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Republished by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. (publishing as Pearson Addison Wesley). This book delves into many of the non-technical concerns of an architect, in addition to some of the more technical ones. For more information on Beyond Software Architecture and to order it, see the book page on the Addison-Wesley site (http://www.awprofessional.com/titles/0201775948).
• Software Architecture: Organizational Principles and Patterns: Preface and "Rhythm: Assuring Beat, Process and Movement" chapter 4, by David Dikel, David Kane, and James Wilson, Prentice-Hall, 2001. For more information on this book and to order it, see the book page on the Prentice-Hall site or Amazon.com.
• "Software Architecture: Central Concerns, Key Decisions" (ArchitectureDefinition.PDF, 124 kb) by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, May 2002.
• "Less is More with Minimalist Architecture" (MinimalistArchitecture.PDF, 47kb) by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, published in IEEE's IT Professional, September/October 2002. © 2002 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
• "The Visual Architecting Process™" (VisualArchitectingProcess.pdf, 223kb), by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, January 2005. (Revision of the May 2003 paper) <1>
• "Defining Non-Functional Requirements" or System Qualities (nonFunctReq.pdf, 39kb), by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, August 2001.
• "Architecture Teams" (ArchitectureTeams.pdf, 23kb), by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, March 2001.
• "Creating an Architectural Vision: Collecting Input" (vision_input.pdf, 10kb), by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, July 2000. See also Newspaper_ Vision.pdf (34 kb), which is a fictitious vision article we created in the year 2000 as a promotion. Back then, 2003 was three years out, not 3 years behind us! Sadly, this vision is still relevant to many companies 6 years after vision was written!
• "James Madison and the Role of the Architect" (madison.pdf, 7kb), by Dana Bredemeyer, June 1999.
• "Role of the Software Architect" (ArchitectRole.PDF, 40kb), by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, 2002 (minor revision of 1999 paper).
• "Functional Requirements and Use Cases" (FunctReq.pdf, 39kb), by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, June 1999.
• "The Tao of the Software Architect: Lao-Tsu, revisited" (tao by Kruchten.htm) by Philippe Kruchten (Rational).

Presentations

• What: Architecture Definition, by Ruth Malan, presented at the Indianapolis Java Users Group, April 2005. (SoftwareArchitectureIntro.PDF). <4>
• Architecture Strategy Choreographs the Dance of Change, by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, September 2003. (ArchitectureStrategy.PDF, 872 Kb). <9>
• Enterprise Architecture as Business Capabilities Architecture, by Dana Bredemeyer, Ruth Malan, Raj Krishnan and Aaron LaFrenz, May 2003, updated May 2006. (EnterpriseArchitectureAsCapabilitiesArchSlides.PDF, 317 Kb). <05>
• Overview of the Visual Architecting Process™, by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, May 2003. (VisualArchitectingProcessOverviewSlides.PDF, 2.7 Mb). <5>
• What it Takes to be a Great in the Role of Enterprise Architect, by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, September 2002. (GreatArchitect.PDF, 883 Kb). <9>
• Introduction to Software Architecture, by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, July 2002. (ArchitectureIntroduction.PDF, 1.2 Mb).
• Architecture Definitions and Views, March 2001 (Definitions.pdf, 206Kb).
• Introduction to the Lead/Follow/Get out of the Way tutorial presented at the Enterprise Architectures Conference in Boston, March 2001 (LFGIntro.pdf, 498kb).
• Software Architecture Action Guide presentation given at the INRUG Training Symposium, April 6, 2000 (Architecture_Action_Guide_Talk.pdf, 179kb).

Columns

• Guiding Principles for Enterprise Architects, by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, April 2004. (http://www.bredemeyer.com/HotSpot/20040428EASoapBox.htm). <4>
• Architecture Strategy, by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, April 2003. (http://www.bredemeyer.com/ArchitectingProcess/ArchitectureStrategy.htm). <1>
• Architecture Requirements, by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, February 2002. (http://www.bredemeyer.com/ArchitectingProcess/ArchitecturalRequirements.htm). <1>
• Meta-Architecture, by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, January 2004. (http://www.bredemeyer.com/ArchitectingProcess/MetaArchitecture.htm). <1>
• Architecture Teams, by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer, April 2001. (http://www.bredemeyer.com/Architecture_Teams.htm). <1>
  

Downloads

• Visual Architecting Process™ Core Activities (VisualArchitectingProcess_Core.PDF, 191kb). This chart is formatted to be printed on 11x17 paper. <1>
• Visual Architecting Process™ Poster (VAPPoster.PDF, 191kb). This poster is formatted to be printed on 11x17 paper. <5>
• 2 page primer on Software Architecture and the Visual Architecting Process™ (VAPActionGuide2005.pdf, 57kb). <1>

Architect Competency Framework:

Our Architect Competency Framework is under development. We are sharing these drafts of the framework, and the associated competency elaborations, with you. Please note that these are works-in-progress. We welcome your suggestions for improvement.

In each of the competency elaboration modules below, Level I identifies the knowledge, activities and characteristics needed for an architect to perform well at component scope, Level II at application/system project scope, Level III at product family or portfolio scope, and Level IV at Enterprise scope. We invite your feedback, suggestions and stories.

• Architect Competency Framework (6 kb). 1 page summary of the architect's domains of competency (what you know, what you do, and what you are). <9>
• Technology Competency Elaboration (26 kb). This module elaborates on the technology competency domain in our Architect Competency Framework. <1>
• Strategy Competency Elaboration (19 kb). This module elaborates on the strategy competency domain in our Architect Competency Framework. <9> You may be interested in our Strategy Primer for Architects. <4>
• Organizational Politics Competency Elaboration (25 kb). This module elaborates on the politics (or organizational effectiveness) competency domain in our Architect Competency Framework. <10>
• Leadership Competency Elaboration (21 kb). This module elaborates on the leadership competency domain in our Architect Competency Framework. <10>

Visual Architecting Process™ Guides:

• ProcessGuide.pdf, 60kb is designed to be printed on unruled index cards. This is the ideal format, as these guides are intended as handy references. This is the format we use for our Architecture Action Guide™ handouts given to workshop participants.
• ProcessGuide_8_5x11.pdf has the same content but formatted for 8.5"x11" paper. We have also printed these up on large format paper to use as posters during workshops or for architecture team's work areas.
• Printing instructions: print pages 1 to 7, then turn paper over and print pages 8 to 14 on the reverse side (so that page 8 is on the reverse side of page 1, page 9 on page 2, etc.)
• Note: This is just the set of summary Architecture Action Guides™ for the Architecting Process. The complete set of Architecture Action Guides™ is given to our workshop participants (see our Training and Services page for more information on our workshops).

Example Software Architecture Action Guides™ by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer:

• Conceptual Architecture Action Guide (ConceptualArchitectureActionGuide.pdf, kb)
• Meta-Architecture Action Guide (MetaArchitectureActionGuide.pdf, 237kb)
• Software Architecture Principles Template (Principles_Template.pdf, 24kb)
• Interface Specification Template (Interface_Template.pdf, 24kb)
• Use Case Template (Use_Case_Template.pdf, 25kb)
• Stakeholder Profile Graphic Guide (Stakeholder_Profile.pdf, 222kb)

Example Architecture Action Guides™ for Architecture Teams by Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer:

• Architecture Team Charter Template (ArchitectureTeamCharterTemplate.pdf, 9kb)

Use Case Template (use_case.pdf, 23kb) by Derek Coleman (HP)

Restrictions on use: All material that is copyrighted Bredemeyer Consulting and published on this page and other pages of our site, may be downloaded and printed for personal use. If you wish to quote or paraphrase fragments of our work in another publication or web site, please properly acknowledge us as the source, with appropriate reference to the article or web page used. If you wish to republish any of our work, in any medium, you must get written permission from the lead author. Also, any commercial use must be authorized in writing by Bredemeyer Consulting.