Seminars

“Nobody would build a skyscraper or a bridge without employing an architect or construction engineer. In order to ensure that your software will be long-lived and successful, you need trained software architects. Rely on the expertise of Fraunhofer IESE to make sure that when you build your software, the façade will not crumble right away and change requests will not lead to its collapse.“ Dr. Jens Knodel

Architectures are the decisive factor for success in the development and evolution of software systems. Architectures define building plans via the characteristics, the behavior, and the structure of the software.

How you can benefit

After the seminar, you will have the knowledge and skills to …

• use architectures in your company. Our methodology permits the participants to quickly get practical access to the topic of architecture. After the seminar, they will be able to define, use, and evaluate architectures on their own.
• use architectures in a pragmatic manner. Architectures are no end in themselves; therefore, our methodology defines clear application cases. In particular, we emphasize application scenarios for architecture documentation: How to get from the architecture to something that is useful in development and evolution and helpful in daily practice.
• interleave architectures with other software engineering activities. Results and industrial cases show how architectures can be used throughout the entire lifecycle.
• be able to assess technological trends and hypes: The name Fraunhofer stands for the objective presentation of content. Unlike our competitors, we bring a neutral view to the subject.

You want to live the role of a “software architect“? Attend our seminar and benefit from our expertise!

The goal of the seminar “Software Architecture“ is to train the participants in the typical activities performed by an architect. The seminar is a three-day on-site training session, which can be extended by an additional two days to consolidate the skills learned.

In addition to building up methodological knowledge, a lot of emphasis will be placed on the practical application of the newly learned skills. Many exercises and interchanges with experts will solidify what the participants have learned. After the seminar, the participants will be able to use the approaches they practiced in their daily work.

The multitude of our projects with industry partners shows that the lightweight approaches presented by us can also be introduced into a company‘s already existing process landscapes.

Included are all seminar materials, drinks, and lunches during the days of the seminar. Travel and accommodation costs must be borne by the participants themselves.

Venue: Fraunhofer IESE, Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

Upon demand, we offer individually designed seminars for your company, with the training content being systematically matched to your needs.

Dr. Matthias Naab, Dr. Dominik Rost, Balthasar Weitzel, Dr. Pablo O. Antonino, and Dr. Johannes C. Schneider are software architects at Fraunhofer IESE in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Their expertise – consolidated experiences and lessons learned from more than 100 projects with industry in a wide variety of domains and system classes – is in the definition, improvement, and assessment of software architectures.

At Fraunhofer IESE, these instructors are responsible for project management, method development, and technology transfer in research and industry projects. They are in charge of research activities at IESE in the area of software and system architectures and coordinate the work of 30 team members in the area of architecture.

They regularly conduct training for practitioners on the subject of software architecture, both in seminars held regularly at Fraunhofer IESE and at customers’ premises. They also give numerous presentations and tutorials in this area at conferences and hold lectures at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. They have published more than 100 publications in the areas of architecture, maintenance, and evolution of software.

Dr. Matthias Naab has been head of the “Information Systems” division at Fraunhofer IESE since 2020. From 2015 to 2019, he was head of the “Architecture-Centric Engineering (ACE)” department. Since 2010, he has been responsible for the topic area of architecture for information systems. Prior to joining IESE, he worked as a developer in the logistics industry. Matthias Naab obtained his PhD from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 2012 in the field of software architecture with a focus on improving the flexibility of information systems. For several years he has been particularly committed to bringing digital ecosystems and platform economy closer to German companies, helping them understand these better and find their right position in them. In this exciting topic, the sphere of influence of architects is placed in an even broader context and ranges from business models and technology to legal issues, and all this across numerous companies. He likes to share experiences from his practical and pragmatic architecture work at conferences.

Dr. Dominik Rost has been a software architecture at Fraunhofer IESE since 2009, where he has been head of the “Architecture-Centric Engineering (ACE)” department since 2020. He works on topics related to software architectures for information systems. The focus of his scientific work is on the development of practically applicable methods and tools for improving architecture work in software development projects. In 2019, he received his PhD from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, for his work on the efficient application of architecture documentation. In addition to doing applied research, he manages and conducts consulting projects with industry customers from all industries aimed at developing, evaluating, and documenting the architecture of their products and at improving the partners’ skills in the area of software architecture. He regularly speaks about his experiences at conferences. In addition, he also leads the seminar “Software Architecture” of the Fraunhofer Academy.

Balthasar Weitzel has been working at Fraunhofer IESE since 2009 as a researcher and consultant, dealing with software architectures for information systems. In addition to being involved in a variety of projects with industry customers, he is currently working as the chief architect in the project “Digital Villages”, a major research project for the digitization of rural areas aimed at establishing an open ecosystem for digital services.

Dr. Pablo O. Antonino is the department head of the Embedded Software Engineering Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE. The department’s competencies comprise the construction, assessment, and simulation of architectures for dependable embedded systems. Dr. Pablo O. Antonino has been working at Fraunhofer IESE since 2009. Before joining Fraunhofer IESE, he worked as a software developer in various companies developing embedded and information systems. He received his PhD from the University of Kaiserslautern in 2016.

What I liked best …

• "The switching between theory and practical exercises"
• "The quality and credibility of the content taught"
• "The substantial conversations with the seminar leaders and the participants outside the official meetings"
• "The fact that the participants came from various domains and thus opened up different/new perspectives"

How would you summarize the seminar in one sentence?

• "At the seminar, a comprehensive proposal was made regarding how to design the role of the architect."
• "Well organized, very helpful. Thank you!"
  
• "Enriching"
• "A comprehensive overview of this topic and with practical in-depth information/applications; good exchange with colleagues from other companies."
• "Provided a sensible summary of the complex issue of software architecture to create a good basis on which to build further."