Edmonton CIPS Conference Day One 6Nov2006

Welcome to the CIPS ICE conference in Edmonton , Alberta, Canada 6Nov-9Nov2006. Check out www.iceconference.com for a complete agenda. But, Edmonton you ask? Yes, the SOA Integration Ninja finds himself in the hinterland attending the first day of a four day conference dedicated to the IT industry in and about Edmonton. I will attempt to cover the proceedings so you feel as if you are attending yourself. If you behave yourself and ask nicely, I have safely preserved the prestigious leather case, complete with calculator (donated by ATCO I-TEK ) that was given out as part of the giveaways/graft for all attendees. It is yours for the asking.

On with the commentary then!

I started off the day meeting with Jason Bloomberg, of ZapThink fame, since he was asked to present at both a morning presentation and an afternoon follow-up. It is these sessions that are the primary draw for me. I am, of course, an honorary member of the ZapThink architecture alliance J I respect these gents for their non partisan stand on the benefits of Architecture and SOA in particular. Online Business Systems has sponsored an entire track, placed a full page ad in the Agenda and sponsored a table at the executive dinner this evening. Read on for my comments about the day. Enjoy.

The day started with a keynote regarding nanotechnology. “Not your favourite breakfast topic” one fellow conference attendee at our table noted. I truly struggled to find relevance to the keynote until the very end. Surprisingly enough the relevance has a lot to do with SOA in that it highlights the need to approach business problems from different perspectives. The lessons learned is related to the aspects of building in less of a margin of error since nanotechnology designed products that can convert raw molecules into machines that can then manufacture/construct at a larger nano level, other machines. These machines build larger structures/machines that in turn build to a larger scale until something we can actually be seen is built (in relatively short time) and it matches exactly the digital model that is its very design. A replicator from star trek comes to mind and this is the exact metaphor for SOA such that what you imagine technology is capable of doing will and can be done if you are able to assemble and construct the building blocks, starting even from the sub-molecular level.

Above and beyond the building blocks analogy for SOA is the reiteration that SOA is about thinking outside of the box and embracing new technologies to enable business agility. What a simple solution to be able to design an object using a model and have it manufactured from raw molecules. Simple and powerful abstraction and soon to be a reality I would bet.

Session 1 Business Case for SOA

This session is part of the overall ZapThink material that Online Business Systems has been certified to deliver through their certified Architect program. There are 10 courses/sessions that revolve around the book ‘SOA or Be Doomed’ and Jason delivered the first summary/introduction material to an appreciative audience of over 100. The people attending come from all aspects of IT delivery, CIOs, IT Managers, Architects, etc. A very broad audience indeed. The session went well, as always, with a highlight being the distribution of the ZapThink SOA Roadmap posters. I have a few if you are interested. Drop me a line J Remember though, a real roadmap is hammered out internally and the poster is to help you visualize one path, with considerations for completing your own roadmap for your own company. This concept is hard to grasp since everyone seems to want a silver bullet or set of 10 things that if they follow them, will lead to SOA panacea. Of source, software Vendors will play into these desires and make promises in order to close the sale. Did you buy SOA from your Vendor? I think not. But whatever allows you to sleep at night is OK sometimes.

I have the slides for this presentation and the next one and in fact, the entire 10 modules along with 2 bonus modules that cover the emergence of SOA Vendor software and a set of case studies normally presented only on request. I would love to share these with you. Through the ZapThink certified Architect program we are able to leverage this material to spread the good word of SOA as long as we give credit to ZapThink as authors of the slides. Great program and great session this morning.

Session 2 SOA Governance and Risk Management

Another well attended session with over 100 people, most of whom did not attend the morning sessions. Many companies buy corporate memberships and share them amongst staff. I noticed a few colleagues with whom I am or have consulted with in the past, attending this session. Not among these was one IT Manager at my table that said “I don’t really get this SOA stuff. It is new to me and I guess it will sink in sometime. I just have to keep getting refreshed.” I often wonder if the concepts of SOA are really understood by an audience and I believe that most DO get it or can take some aspect of what they learn and add value to their own project/initiatives. It is no wonder that SOA is best understood by Architects since it is Architecture after all J

Questions and comments form those that attended the first session were answered during this session, that focused on Policies and how policies, contracts and services fit together in the context of governance. I know this is a hot topic with a few projects in Edmonton that have been working towards the early adoption of SOA based solutions, are talking this problem already. The session provided excellent direction on the considerations for design but does fall short of providing a template for a policy (XML Schema for instance. Pun intended). I really want to materialize this concept and I currently have a client that is going through he design stage and in need of a metadata source for Service Contracts and their associated Policy assertions. So, as you can see, I really enjoyed this refresher and it was very topical for me and seemed to be well received by the audience.


Executive Dinner

This evening, I was accompanied by Joe and Joe from Online to the Mayfair Country Club where Online sponsored a table at the ‘invitation only’ executive dinner. The keynote speaker was a VP at Nova who was once the CIO. The talk centred around the successful rationalization of multiple Oracle databases into streamlined IT Operations such that plants are now operated by half the people and with a higher safety record to boot. The topic was interesting and the company at our table was very engaging. I will not name names since these are Executives with more of a reputation to uphold that I have. Needless to say, I was honoured to be in the presence of senior leaders within the Edmonton IT community. If you are one of these Leaders, pat yourself on the back. I am sure I talked way too much for some tastes but is very seldom that an Architect gets to sit with technology decision makers and gets the chance to perhaps influence (even in a small way) IT policy.
Topics of conversations revolved around call centre solutions, healthcare and the normal sharing of ideas and situations that occur in a social settings like this. One conversation the Ninja found engaging related to the general acceptance that the next generation could be termed ‘Gamers’. I first heard this term when reading an article in Wired magazine and it generalizes the new generation as being highly accepting of technology collaborations mediums (MSN, Google, YouTube, etc.). These methods are now an expected and normal way of communication. In comparison, we offer stringent tools to our people in the corporate setting. Very inflexible conared to what the gamers are getting used to on the we. That is the message that Web 2.0 is set to deliver to the world. A new wave of expectations by the basic system user that demand maximum flexibility and at the same time flawless execution. Kind of like Mortal Combat or the other gamers games like Halo, World of WarCraft, etc. that allow a gamer to interact with the environment, controlling almost every aspect of the game (imagine business workflow) by changing metadata. My Son spends more time on Play Station games managing the metadata related to how the game should behave than he does actually playing the game itself. The fun and the challenge is in controlling the entire environment through metadata. We are best advised to begin offering solutions in the corporate world that allow this type of customization, by the business. The gamers will demand it. Flawless Execution!