We’re trying a little experiment for SPA Cambridge’s January session at Anglia Ruskin University on 16th January (7:00pm (light buffet) 7:30pm (talk) )

This time around we’ve invited a panel of experts to consider the question: “Software Architects - who needs ‘em (and are they overpaid)?”

The panellists, with suitable audience contributions (questions, comments, heckling  etc.), will investigate the role of software architects and the value software architects bring to software development. Are architects needed or will good architectures ‘emerge’ without their intervention? Could your projects use a good architect or would you have been better off without one? Does software even need an architecture?

Panellists have been confirmed as Matt Deacon, Allan Kelly and Nick Rozanski:

Matt Deacon (Microsoft)

Matt Deacon is the Chief Architectural Advisor for the Developer and Platform Group at Microsoft Ltd, in the UK. His primary role is to serve as an advisor to Microsoft’s customers, and the public, on all matters relating to the field and profession of IT Architecture.

Allan Kelly (Independent)

After more than 10 years at the code face Allan Kelly came to believe that many of the problems faced by development teams are not in the code but in the management of projects. He has spent the last five years trying to understand and fix problems on the management and organizational side.

Nick Rozanski (Marks and Spencer)

Nick Rozanski is a Lead Technical Architect with Marks and Spencer. He manages a team of Technical Architects who are accountable for Application Services, which includes Application Hosting (.NET and latterly J2EE), Relational Database platforms, Data Warehouse and Business Information, Application Integration, and Non-Production Environments.

I’ll be introducing the panel and feeding them questions should the audience be shy - which has never happened at any previous SPA Cambridge meeting… If there’s anything you’d like me to ask them then let me know.

Hopefully we’ll get someone organised to make a sound recording of this for posterity.

The event is free and open to all but please preregister at http://www.bcs-spa.org/cgi-bin/view/SPA/SoftwareArchitects