Workshops

Last week, I hosted another architecture workshop for a large consultancy company in Belgium. The audience consisted of experienced developers, aspiring to gain more influence in their projects and software architects. The workshop started with a theoretical model aimed at the creation of better software. Using multiple concrete examples, the model is taught to the audience. After the first few techniques, the attendees are challenged to put theory into practice. They need to explain the rationale behind their solutions to their peers and learn from each other. This hands-on approach creates a positive atmosphere that contributes to learning.

Regularly, I check with the audience if the workshop is meeting their expectations and adjust where necessary. This allows me to address some of the challenges they are facing in the current day-to-day work.

Naturally, getting nice feedback, is motivating to do more. I received this from the organiser:

Thanks for the inspiring workshop yesterday. I have only heard positive comments.

Goals

The goal of the kata, is to guide attendees in creating software architectures that meet the challenges of today’s always-on, Internet-connected and ever-evolving systems.

We want to help participants:

• To be effective in fast-moving, agile environments.
• To deal with the evolution of systems.
• With a standardized approach for architecture creating, conformance and quality assurance.
• To ensure that the correct amount of architecture work gets done. Not too much, not too little. Just enough.

These katas are very hands-on.

Practical

The entire workshop will take up eight hours, but it is possible to do a shorter four hour version. It is also possible to compose a custom workshop, within your desired timeframe. Ideally, the number of participants sits between ten and twenty, but alternative options are possible.

After the workshop, the attendees also receive a course filled with one-pagers of all the examples and explanatory notes.

If you are interested in hosting a workshop like this, feel free to contact me for more details.