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

Building Modular Architectures

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 developing a software system using several of the patterns of modular architecture. We'll explore the patterns and then apply them to develop a sample application. Along the way, we'll discuss implementation variations and the consequences of our decision. When finished, we'll have a simple but useful application that you can take home with you and easily extend with new functionality. This session is all pure Java, and you'll be able to apply the techniques you learn immediately.

Modular Java Architecture

8:30 AM MDT

Modularity is coming to the Java platform! Java 9 will introduce the Jigsaw module system. OSGi is here today. But 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.

Toward Agile Architecture

10:30 AM MDT

Despite our wishing it were so, software architecture is not static throughout a project. Yet, we make many of our software architecture decisions early in the software development lifecycle. In today’s volatile technology and business climate, big architecture up front is not sustainable. In this session, we will explore several techniques that help us create more flexible and adaptable software systems. But first, we’ll expose the true essence of what’s meant when we say “architectural agility.”

What’s the goal of architecture? To serve as a blueprint of the system? Possess the flexibility to evolve as new requirements emerge? To satisfy the architectural qualities, including performance, security, availability, reliability, and scalability? Yes. Yes. Yes. But how do we create software architectures that achieves all of these goals? And how do we ensure no disconnect occurs between developers responsible for implementation and architects responsible for the vision? Especially in a volatile technology climate where organizations seek to move their applications to the cloud, expose application capabilities to new endpoints, and deliver new capabilities quickly? In this session, we’ll explore techniques to increase architectural agility and provide some actionable advice that will help you get started immediately.

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.