The Ray King Blog

Big Christmas

2007-12-28T13:27:00.001+11:00

Well it has been a big Christmas and it has also been too long since I have posted, the last six months have been very hectic, I have kick off a couple of large software development projects and between designing, fighting specs and training developers I have not had much time for anything.I have decided that these post are going to be written more for my benefit, some would call this selfish but

The Promised Land of SOA

2007-07-16T11:10:00.000+10:00

Here again is another post about S.O.A (Service-Oriented Architecture), but from a different perspective then my previous ones.I have just realised a major error that I have been making when I have been talking to folks about SOA, I have not appeared excited about SOA and as a result I think I might have come off as negative or disapproving of the approach. I only had this cognition yesterday

Developer Manager Divide

2007-07-07T15:16:00.000+10:00

Something inside of me was stirred recently when I came across a blog by Rob Walling, clearly Rob is an experienced and insightful developer which is passionate about his work, further he has experience the many sides of our industry.One particular post 'An Open Letter to Software Managers of the World' really got me thinking. I have hinted at the conflict issues before in my posting that can

Not all architects are the same

2007-07-04T18:01:00.000+10:00

The Art and Craft of Great Software Architecture and Development: How to spot the dreaded non-coding architectCame across the above whilst surfing and just had to add my two cents worth. I came across this post by Frank Kelly; clearly, his life has been made hell by what he calls the dreaded non-coding architect. Therefore, I had to respond as the non-coding architect. I am going to follow the

What is a Software Architect

2007-07-04T11:39:00.001+10:00

There seem to be more and more confusion over the role of a Software Architect, it seems the definition can change day to day from person to person. So what I am going attempt to do in this posting and some followup posting is define what I believe the role is from my own experience and research.To kick things off I have to say that 70% of the 'Architects' I have met should not have the title,

The Online Office

2007-07-03T12:41:00.000+10:00

I think we all knew it was coming and there have certain have been previous attempts to deliver the corner stone applications of word processing and spreadsheets online but they have all just been warm-ups compared Google's efforts. For a while now one could access and use Google Docs & Spreadsheets and in the usual Google fashion they have evolved the offering quietly and thoughtfully. Then in

The Code Base is an Asset

2007-06-18T12:03:00.000+10:00

Having recently completed a maintenance engagement, yes architects do get involved with maintenance, hence I am going to use this posting to rave on and on about code as an asset.The concept of custom developed software as an Asset totally escapes most organisations and as result of poor asset management, they end upstanding under the shower ripping up hundred dollar bills to keep their software

Organisational Awareness Practice

2007-06-04T11:39:00.000+10:00

The final area of practice is organisation awareness which can present certain challenges, some would call this area political aspects of the role, unfortunately the connotations this brings to up are completely misplaced. Politics is a reality of life and occurs the moment two people walk into the same room and of particular importance to the architect because it is politics the limits what can

Strategic Practice

2007-06-04T11:38:00.001+10:00

Like the technical competencies the strategic area is divided into three classifications, the first being the bear minimum that is expected, the second being representative of someone with satisfactory skills and the third being the required to be a leader field.Bearing in mind that strategic competency is just one of the three areas that Architect needs to have master, yet it is very valuable

Technical Practice

2007-06-04T11:38:00.000+10:00

We have already talked at a high level what a Software Architect is and we have covered the three keys areas of practice. Here we will attempt to drill down on the technical aspects to provide an inventory of the necessary skills and experience the Architect needs to carry with him.When we talk about technical skills, we are talking about Technology Competencies. I shall describe these in terms

Passing Note

2007-05-31T11:30:00.000+10:00

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post and every day I have been telling myself I need to post. Well today, well this morning, well in the next 15mins I have feel I thought I would do a quick note to let everyone know what has been happening.I have need rushed off my feet of late with projects so there will probably be some interesting post in the next few on web services and as I am

Web 2.0 + SOA = Web Services

2007-05-16T08:25:00.001+10:00

It is easy to be caught up in the hype and the latest terms, certainly, when your cabbie ask you about Web2.0 you know that marketing engine has been working in overdrive. Well that is actually, what happened to me today.Whilst catching a cab today, my friendly cabbie asked me what I did, I replied with the standard line 'I work with computers' , Before I knew it he was telling about his son the

Leveraging Google

2007-05-14T14:05:00.001+10:00

With the buzz about Web2.0, Mash up and SOA, I thought this would be an opportune time for a quick post on how an enterprise can leverage Google so that can go where no man has been before.When we think Google we think search and rightly so they have had a major impact on that landscape, but search is not the only thing we should think. As of this moment there is probably some half dozen other

Software Architecture within a Commercial Context

2007-05-11T13:56:00.000+10:00

Inspired by a recent post by Paul Reedman I was driven to make this response, before diving in let me go on record and say that having been a readers of Paul’s Blog for while now I usually find myself saying ditto to all his post.But this one and in particular the responses which it generated has fired me into action.The line "In the software industry it's all about writing code and getting a

Software Development Analogy

2007-05-05T23:19:00.000+10:00

There has been much debate of a simple analogy; that building software is like building a house and that software development is like construction. Having read and considered the all arguments surrounding the software construction analogy and given that both camps have appeared to rest their cases, it was appear to be an opportune time to reach some kind of determination on the matter.In

Contact Me.

2007-05-01T20:35:00.000+10:00

function Contact_Me_CF(){ var errormessage = new String();var vF = document.forms["Contact_Me"];if(Contact_Me_WithoutContent(vF["Email"].value)){errormessage += "\n\nPlease fill in the \"Email\" edit field";}if(Contact_Me_NotEmail(vF["Email"].value)){errormessage += "\n\nThe entry for \"Email\" does not appear to be a valid email address";}if (

Ephemeralisation

2007-05-01T12:30:00.000+10:00

Ephemeralization or Ephemeralisation if you are in a Commenwealth country, is a term coined for a concept arrived at by Buckminster Fuller 1922 and is best explained by a quote from the man himself:“the principle of doing ever more with ever less weight, time and energy per each given level of functional performance” SynergeticsIn fact an ephemeralisation is what is produced as a result of a

Commercial Consulting Services

2007-05-01T10:44:00.000+10:00

Somewhere between 40 to 60 percent, of all software projects fail to meet their predefined business objectives. Retaining an independent experienced consulting software architect at the initial stages of a project directly reduces the risk of project failure.Any new project involves financial investment against which there are risk which we seek to offset against the commercial returns, this is

Software Industry Services

2007-05-01T10:00:00.000+10:00

Getting access to a high-end resource without the direct and indirect retention cost is the key benefit of the consulting software architect service. Historically the highest cost of any development team was the embedded architect, on average costing a factor of four times more than a single developer, employing a top-flight architect is a major cost.Yet a necessary investment not only from a

Object Orientated Design Principals

2007-04-30T18:00:00.000+10:00

Via this series of postings, I intend to explain, some of the object orientated design principles that I believe to be key in design and then writing good software. I will try to explain all the reasons the principals are important and give some example of implementation using Java and/or C# code examples.The best place to start, clearly up the issue of OO design Principals and Patterns.

Estimate Guesstimate

2007-04-28T22:08:00.000+10:00

There has been plenty written and said about estimation of software development times and a number of methods that have come and gone just like fashion. The schools of thought range from those (J. P Lewis) that state there is no way to estimate software development time to those who believe estimates can be made at best on a varying scale of accuracy (CMM).From experience, personally, I side with

People are amazing

2007-04-27T15:38:00.000+10:00

I can feel a nightmare coming on.I promise I am not going to name any person or organisation in this posting, oh how I wish I could.Just know that in the best firm’s ugliness is only one thought away.So I sat there today for two hours hearing about this great product idea and how after it is developed the company is going to have a massive strategic advantage. Then I made the mistaking of asking

Lying Resume

2007-04-22T18:46:00.000+10:00

Real World Software Architecture: Frauds- Liar, Liar, Resume on FireI am starting to think that is an international practice, having worked on three continents I have found this problem everywhere and I have also developed my little theory & solution.I believe the problem begins with the placement firms/recruitment agents and the job descriptions we provide to them. Let’s say I need to take on

The Process Value

2007-04-22T17:57:00.000+10:00

Real World Software Architecture: Thinking Software Development Process Implementation is Free means the Blind are Leading the Blind, but there are Ruby Slippers that may Help.This posting has been triggered by a very interesting posting I read on Tad Andersons blog, Real world software engineering, about development processes and more to the point the implementation of process within software

They don't get it - Price the Enviroment

2007-04-17T18:11:00.000+10:00

I have just finishing watch another depressing news report on our environment, this one "Earth, Wind & Fire" aired on the ABC, yes I have to say any media coverage about this problem we are all facing is good, but I am starting to feel it is time we dropped the 'fair and balanced', 'lets not make too much of a fine point' approach. We are talking about a problem that is a human race killer and

New GUI Methodology - XAML it..

2007-02-12T21:58:00.000+11:00

Having recently completed a project where we handled the conceptual design and functional design in a new way I thought it would be of benefit to share some insights.The application was for the visualisation and manipulation of large amounts of transactional data, besides the technical challenges which I will attempt to covering in another posting, we needed a method to explore and discover the

Fast Pit Crews

2007-01-10T19:32:00.000+11:00

I have always been amazed as to how fast pit crews can complete stop in a race, in less then 10 second these guys do it all including a refuel, tire change and replace the noise of formula 1 car. This is certainly and example of peak performance if there ever was one, so how do they do it I needed to know.The deep seated thought in my head was that these guys must of just be fast, after doing