Software Engineering Institute

June 1, 2012—The Software Engineering Institute (SEI), in collaboration with IEEE Software magazine, hosted its eighth annual SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference this year in St. Petersburg, Florida, from May 7 through May 11. The conference program for SATURN 2012 explored themes of architecture and collaboration through a series of keynote addresses, panels, and sessions.

SATURN 2012 drew 145 attendees, 112 of whom had never before attended an SEI SATURN conference. The attendees represented 17 countries and 75 organizations. Twenty-six attendees represented a number of key U.S. defense-industry organizations, including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin. 

The SATURN 2012 program included a keynote address from Siemens’ Michael Stal, who offered an approach to bridge the perceived contradictions between software architecture and Agile methods. Vanderbilt University’s Douglas Schmidt also delivered a keynote address on the challenges associated with producing software for enterprise distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems, such as air traffic control systems, supervisory control and data acquisition systems for power grids, and joint air and space operations centers. Other keynotes and plenary talks were delivered by Hans Gyllstrom of Enterprise Design Group, Frances Paulisch of Siemens, Andy Hunt of Toolshed Technologies, and Olaf Zimmerman of ABB Corporate Research. Summaries and transcripts of these presentations can be found at the SATURN 2012 website.

The program also included thirty technical presentations, which were selected from a record number of SATURN conference proposals. SATURN organizers scheduled these presentations into three concurrent sessions. All sessions were well received by attendees. The following session topics were addressed:

• Enterprise Architecture
• Architecture and Agile
• Architecture and Collaboration
• Evolution and Extensibility
• Certification and Culture
• Architecture and Process
• Facilitated Architecture Techniques
• Large Scale
• Architect Skills

SATURN 2012 attendees also enjoyed two well-received panels featuring distinguished experts in the field. In the first panel, the participants discussed the past 20 years of architecture. In the second, they took up the conference theme of architecture as a catalyst for collaboration.

Conference organizers from the SEI expressed gratitude to the IEEE, which arranged the participation of two of the featured speakers and brought strong visibility to the conference through IEEE Software and IEEE Computer magazines. All scheduled tutorials were well attended, and 30 attendees took the SEI courses offered at the conference: “Software Architecture Principles and Practices” and the SEI's newest architecture course, “Advanced Software Architecture Workshop.”

Continuing a practice that began in 2010, SATURN presented two awards for outstanding presentations determined by attendee vote. Michael Keeling of Vivisimo won the IEEE Software SATURN Architecture in Practice Presentation Award for his presentation “Creating an Architecture Oral History: Minimalist Techniques for Describing Systems.” This award recognizes the presentation that best describes lessons learned in applying architecture-centric practices. Arjen Uittenbogaard of Inspearit won the IEEE Software SATURN 2012 New Directions Presentation Award for his presentation “Mythology for Architects.” This award recognizes the presentation that best describes innovative new approaches and thought leadership in the application of architecture-centric practices.

The SEI thanks all SATURN 2012 speakers, presenters, and attendees for making the conference a success.

For more information about SATURN 2012, please visit the SATURN 2012 website.

For more information

Media Contacts: 

Richard Lynch

public-relations@sei.cmu.edu