Software Architect's Course - Case Defenses

Man! It's been one heck of a month! :-) We've been conducting three simultaneous Java Boot Camps, wrapping up the Java Architect's Course, and working on a software project. We've also added two more people to our team... Charo and Ulysses, bringing our compliment to seven.

The most enjoyable part for me were the case defenses of the Architect's Course. For each of three weeks, we would give teams of trainees some project requirements based on actual projects. The teams would pretend to be competing companies that would put forward bids. I invited a panel of cheif architects from different consulting companies to sit as panelists for the defense (think of American Idol, only Paula, Randy and Simon are software architects.).

Man, the panelists dissected each case even more that I expected! They critiqued each presentation in such areas as performance, security, cost, and correctness. In the end, I believe the trainees now have working grasp on the heuristics involved in the arcane art of architectural design. Butch and I picked up quite a thing or two as well!