Neal Ford
Salt Lake Software Symposium
Salt Lake City · July 14 - 15, 2017
Director / Software Architect / Meme Wrangler
Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery.
Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm. Neal has a degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University specializing in languages and compilers and a minor in mathematics specializing in statistical analysis.
He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, video presentations, and author of 6 books, including the most recent The Productive Programmer. His language proficiencies include Java, C#/.NET, Ruby, Groovy, functional languages, Scheme, Object Pascal, C++, and C. His primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal has taught on-site classes nationally and internationally to all phases of the military and to many Fortune 500 companies. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 100 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 600 talks. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his web site at http://www.nealford.com. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at nford@thoughtworks.com.
Presentations
Building Evolutionary Architectures
An evolutionary architecture supports incremental, guided change along multiple dimensions.
Comparing Service-based Architectures
This session compares Service-oriented, Service-based, and Micro-service architectures, describing the problem each is designed to solve, differences and similarities, variants and hybrids, and engineering practices.
Documenting and Presenting Software Architectures
This session covers two critical soft skills for architects:
- creating clear, concise documentation of software architecture, both structure and decisions
- presenting architectural ideas as clearly as possible
Hypothesis/Data Driven Development using Feature Toggles
Hypothesis and data driven development ties together current thinking about requirements, Continuous Delivery, DevOps, modern architecture, and engineering techniques to help rethink building software.
Stories Every Developer Should Know
Stories and lessons from architecture, design, process, and other sources, each illustrating important principles and pitfalls for modern architects.
Build Your Own Technology Radar Workshop for Architects
A Technology Radar is a tool that forces you to organize and think about near term future technology decisions, both for you and your company. This talk discusses using the radar for personal breadth development, architectural guidance, and governance.