workshops |
sunday |
7 |
How Software Architectures Learn - What happens after they are built? |
waterfront centre hotel nootka room |
In the book, "How Buildings Learn, What Happens After They're Built," Stewart Brand puts forward the proposal that buildings adapt best when constantly refined and reshaped by their occupants. His book and photographs capture the history and evolution of numerous buildings over time in a form that can be quickly understood by non-architects. Inspired by Brand's work, this workshop seeks to explore the analogous theme of how software systems change over time.
Billions of dollars are spent annually maintaining and adapting existing software systems. More so than is spent on creating new software. The current Y2K crisis has highlighted our dependence upon these existing systems, and the huge expenditure needed to adapt them so that they are reliable through to the next century.
Many software systems have been in existence for years. The software architecture that each embodies are forced to adapt and evolved over time in the face of ever changing requirements. Very few architects have sufficient foresight to anticipate where these changes are going to come from. In planning for change, some architects provide hooks for future evolution, but these hooks are seldom what is needed when the system needs to change.
This workshop raises the question of what happens to software systems as they evolve. What are the characteristics of a system's software architecture that enable it to be adaptable? How can software architects prepare a system for evolution?
Tom O'Rourke, Paine Webber
Incorporated
Email: tom_orourke@acm.org
Peter Long, Rolfe & Nolan plc