Kyle Gabhart

A common conversation with my clients centers around the topic of certification. Should an architect get certified?  Should a hiring manager insist upon only hiring certified architects?  After all, wouldn’t you prefer to work with someone that has proven to some independent 3rd party that he or she is a credible and capable practitioner in their respective field?  If we were talking about being an electrician, a plumber, a network engineer, or anyone else that is operating in a non-volatile environment in which requirements, solutions, techniques, and best practices are a relatively static set of known values; then I would absolutely encourage you to work with only certified personnel.  The Business and Information Technology arena is, however, constantly changing in terms of practices, frameworks, techniques, tooling, technologies, and strategies.  What constitutes... (more)

Owning Hardware is Soooooo 2008

As the fallout from the economy takes its toll: staff layoffs, reduced capital expenditures, dwindling revenue, etc., enterprises of all sizes are looking for opportunities to trim back on their fixed costs and move toward business models that are more agile, scaling up AND down with demand.  Call it Cloud Computing, call it Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), call it service orientation, or just call it good business. A couple of days ago, Fortune magazine observed this trend in their Tech Daily post: "Goodbye hardware. Hello, services" The core of the article can be found in a... (more)

Book Excerpt: Enabling Agile Business with SOA

This content is excerpted from Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives (978-0-470-26091-3) with permission from the publisher, John Wiley & Sons. You may not make any other use, or authorize any others to make any other use of this excerpt, in any print or non-print format, including electronic or multimedia. SOA Value Story Ronald Schmelzer, of industry think tank ZapThink, describes four key benefits to SOA.[1] Reducing integration expenses (both development costs and maintenance costs) Increasing asset reuse (no need to re-invent the wheel each time) Increasin... (more)

SOA’s not dead yet…it’s getting better

All across the blogosphere, analysts, experts, and technology enthusiasts are buzzing about the latest claims that SOA is dead.  The thunderstorm of controversy was set off by Burton Group analyst, Anne Thomas Manes, who recently blogged an obituary for SOA entitled: SOA is Dead; Long Live Services.  As I consider ... ... (more)

It’s All in the Wrist

Finesse has never been my forte.  I’m a bit more of a brute force, power-through-it, kind of guy.  And yet, I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for the value and importance of technique.  Whether it is technique on the sports field, in the kitchen, during a home improvement project, or on an Enterprise or IT architecture endeavor, technique is a critical aspect of how and what you ultimately produce. Approach vs Method vs Technique First we need to start by distinguishing a few terms and concepts.  We will begin by defining the output of architecture activities. Arti... (more)