Kirk Knoernschild
Software Developer & Mentor
Kirk is software developer with a passion for building great software. He takes a keen interest in design, architecture, application development platforms, agile development, and the IT industry in general, especially as it relates to software development. His recent book, Java Application Architecture was published in 2012, and presents 18 patterns that help you design modular software.Presentations
Refactoring to Modularity
9:00 AM MDT
Monolithic applications are difficult to understand, maintain, and extend with new features and functionality. Modularity helps achieve these goals. Unfortunately, few applications have been designed with modularity in mind. In this workshop, we take a deep dive into modularity. We'll start by briefly examining the benefits of a modular architecture and exploring several patterns that help us design modular software. Then we'll launch into several exercises where we take an existing monolithic software system and refactor it to a modular architecture.
Along the way, we'll examine useful tools that help us along the journey and will demonstrate the benefits of our new architecture.
Turtles, Architecture, & Agility
8:30 AM MDT
A little old lady once challenged a well-known scientist’s explanation on the structure of the universe, countering that the world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise. The scientist rebutted the little old lady’s challenge with one of his own by asking what the tortoise was standing on. The little old lady’s sly reply was that it’s, “turtles all the way down.” So too is software architecture “turtles all the way down”.
In this session, we cover a broad range of topics that include challenging traditional practices of software architecture, examining what it takes to bring down the ivory tower, probing the paradoxical aspects of architecture’s goal, and investigating the inextricable link between temporal decisions and structural flexibility. From the highest level applications and services to the code that exists in the bowels of the system, and everything in between, we explore how an effective software architecture must be turtles all the way down. In the end, we will all have gained deep insight to the value of agile architecture.
Modular Java Architecture - TODAY!
10:30 AM MDT
Modularity is coming to the Java platform! Java 8 will introduce the Jigsaw module system. OSGi is here today. Don’t wait to start designing modular software. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a framework or a new runtime to start building modular software applications. You can start today. Learn how!
In this session, we'll examine what it means to develop modular software on the Java platform. We'll examine the goals and benefits of modular software, and explore the patterns of modular architecture that help us develop modular software systems. With just a few easy steps, we'll see how to transform our software from a huge monolith to an extensible system of collaborating software modules. By examining an existing software system, we'll see first hand how we can increase software modularity with minimal disruption. You'll walk away not just with a much deeper understanding of the benefits of modular software, but also a migration roadmap for refactoring existing applications to increase their modularity. In other words, you'll see how to get ready today for the application platform of tomorrow.
Patterns of Modular Architecture - Part 1
1:30 PM MDT
The modularity patterns provide us with proven design techniques to develop a modular software architecture that is extensible, reusable, maintainable, and adaptable. In this session, we’ll explore 9 of the 18 modularity patterns.
This session introduces and examines the following patterns:
- Manage Relationships
- Module Reuse
- Cohesive Modules
- Acyclic Relationships
- Levelize Modules
- Physical Layers
- Container Independence
- Independent Deployment
- Levelize Build
Patterns of Modular Architecture - Part 2
3:15 PM MDT
The modularity patterns provide us with proven design techniques to develop a modular software architecture that is extensible, reusable, maintainable, and adaptable. In this session, we’ll explore the remaining 9 modularity patterns.
This session introduces and examines the following patterns:
- Published Interface
- External Configuration
- Default Implementation
- Module Facade
- Abstract Modules
- Implementation Factory
- Separate Abstractions
- Colocate Exceptions
- Test Module
Books
Java Application Architecture: Modularity Patterns with Examples Using OSGi (Robert C. Martin Series)
by Kirk Knoernschild
“I’m dancing! By god I’m dancing on the walls. I’m dancing on the ceiling. I’m ecstatic. I’m overjoyed. I’m really, really pleased.”–From the Foreword by Robert C. Martin (a.k.a. Uncle Bob)
This isn’t the first book on Java application architecture. No doubt it won’t be the last. But rest assured, this title is different. The way we develop Java applications is about to change, and this title explores the new way of Java application architecture.
Over the past several years, module frameworks have been gaining traction on the Java platform, and upcoming versions of Java will include a module system that allows you to leverage the power of modularity to build more resilient and flexible software systems. Modularity isn’t a new concept. But modularity will change the way we develop Java applications, and you’ll only be able to realize the benefits if you understand how to design more modular software systems.
Java Application Architecture will help you
- Design modular software that is extensible, reusable, maintainable, and adaptable
- Design modular software today, in anticipation of future platform support for modularity
- Break large software systems into a flexible composite of collaborating modules
- Understand where to place your architectural focus
- Migrate large-scale monolithic applications to applications with a modular architecture
- Articulate the advantages of modular software to your team
Java Application Architecture lays the foundation you’ll need to incorporate modular design thinking into your development initiatives. Before it walks you through eighteen patterns that will help you architect modular software, it lays a solid foundation that shows you why modularity is a critical weapon in your arsenal of design tools. Throughout, you’ll find examples that illustrate the concepts. By designing modular applications today, you are positioning yourself for the platform and architecture of tomorrow. That’s why Uncle Bob is dancing.