Mark Richards
Twin Cities Software Symposium
Minneapolis · March 3 - 6, 2016
Independent Software Architect, Author of Fundamentals of Software Architecture
Mark Richards is an experienced, hands-on software architect involved in the architecture, design, and implementation of microservices architectures, service-oriented architectures, and distributed systems. He has been in the software industry since 1983 and has significant experience and expertise in application, integration, and enterprise architecture. Mark is the founder of DeveloperToArchitect.com, a website devoted to helping developers in the journey to software architect. He is the author of numerous technical books and videos, including the recently published Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Microservices AntiPatterns and Pitfalls, Microservices vs. SOA, the Software Architecture Fundamentals video series, The Enterprise Messaging video series, Java Message Service, 2nd Edition, and contributing author to 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. Mark has a master’s degree in computer science and is a regular conference speaker at the No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS) Symposium Series. He has spoken at hundreds of conferences and user groups around the world on a variety of enterprise-related technical topics.
Presentations
Architectural Modularity
It seems like all we talk about these days is making our architectures more modular. Buy why? In this session I will discuss the drivers and reasons why it is essential to move towards a level of modularity in our architectures. I will discuss and show real-world use cases of distributed modular architectures (specifically microservices and service-based architecture), and then discuss in detail the core differences between microservices and service-based architecture and when you should consider each. I'll end the talk by discussing the most effective way of migrating to modular distributed architectures.
Microservices AntiPatterns
Even though teams are gaining more experience in designing and developing microservices, nevertheless there is still a lot to learn about this highly distributed and somewhat complicated architecture style. Unfortunately, lots of microservices anti-patterns and pitfalls emerge during this learning curve. Learning about these anti-patterns and pitfalls early on can help you avoid costly mistakes during your development process. While anti-patterns are things that seem like a good idea at the time and turn out bad (see martinfowler.com/bliki/AntiPattern.html), pitfalls are those practices that are never a good idea at the time - ever. In this session I will cover some of the more common anti-patterns you will likely encounter while creating microservices, and most importantly describe some of the techniques for avoiding these anti-patterns.
Microservices Pitfalls
Even though teams are gaining more experience in designing and developing microservices, nevertheless there is still a lot to learn about this highly distributed and somewhat complicated architecture style. Unfortunately, lots of microservices anti-patterns and pitfalls emerge during this learning curve. Learning about these anti-patterns and pitfalls early on can help you avoid costly mistakes during your development process. While anti-patterns are things that seem like a good idea at the time and turn out bad (see martinfowler.com/bliki/AntiPattern.html), pitfalls are those practices that are never a good idea at the time - ever. In this session I will cover some of the more common pitfalls you will likely encounter while creating microservices, and most importantly describe some of the techniques for avoiding these pitfalls.
Architecture Patterns
Just as developers use design patterns in software development, architects use well-defined architecture patterns to get a head start on defining the characteristics and shape of the architecture for a system. In this session we will explore some of the more common architecture patterns and use concrete real-world examples to demonstrate how the patterns work. I will also go over the pros and cons of each pattern and discuss how requirements and operational aspects can drive which patterns to use. Using the right architecture pattern for your system is critical, because as we all know, once in place the architecture is very hard to change.
Software Development AntiPatterns
The ancient Chinese warrior Sun Tzu taught his men to “know your enemy” before going into battle. For developers, the equivalent is knowing and understanding software development anti-patterns – things that we repeatedly do that produce negative results. Anti-patterns are used by developers, architects and managers every day, and are one of the main factors preventing progress and success. In this humorous and fast-paced session we will take a deep-dive look at some of the more common and significant software development anti-patterns. Through coding and design examples you will see how these anti-patterns emerge, how to recognize when an anti-pattern is being used, and most importantly, learn how to avoid them through effective software development techniques and practices. Although most of the coding examples are in Java, this is largely a technology-agnostic session.