“The Iasa Twin Cities Chapter will demonstrate its ability to help (IT Architects) perform more efficiently and effectively in their professional roles and assist them to advance in their careers,” says Chapter President Johan Wettstrom, a consultant with Tech Edge Solutions, Inc. “In the end, I hope this effort will help out the companies in our area by providing a higher and/or more consistent level of IT Architects.”
In the immediate future, Iasa Twin Cities will offer member meetings, networking and social events, as well as education, training and certification through Iasa Global. In addition, IT Architect Roundtables targeted at corporations will be held. Long term goals include adding mentoring, local training, education and certification, architecture assessments and sponsoring student groups at local universities.
Explains Johan, “My motivation for starting the chapter -- in our case, restarting the chapter -- was to improve the skills of IT Architects in our area, including my own. I am also looking for IT Architects to be recognized for the skills they have.”
A second chapter board member, Rakesh Malakar exemplifies the professional development opportunities the chapter hopes to promote. Already an IT Architect at Green Tree Credit Solutions with a master’s in computer science, Rakesh is Iasa IFC certified and is working on his Iasa IAC –Software Architecture certificate, he says.
The chapter is starting off strong with an upcoming roundtable already planned for October 10, 2012. Twin City area IT Architects will have an opportunity to sample and sign-up for membership during the chapter’s first IT Architect Roundtable to be held October 10th from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
All area IT Architects are invited to the forum; attendees do not need to be Iasa members to participate. The roundtable will be held at the Medical Health Plans offices at 401 Carlson Parkway, Minnetonka, MN 55305. To register, visit the events listing at http://www.iasaglobal.org.
The desire to help strengthen the overall industry as well as individual architects motivates chapter board member Brette Esterbrooks, architect at Lifetouch and owner of Brette.Net Consulting.
“Over time our industry has went through a strange shift. From an industry that once considered quality, maintainability, scalability and accessibility the core goal of enterprise software, to one, that often sacrifices these tenets for various reasons.
“The retrograde away from our solid architecture foundations is something that I just really want to help reverse. I feel as software developers we can do a lot in this regard by simply raising awareness of these trends. This chapter is one way we can do that,” Brette concludes.
To learn more about the Twin Cities Chapter and its new leadership team, visit http://www.iasaglobal.org and select the communities link.
About Iasa
The Iasa is the premier association focused on the IT architecture profession through the advancement of best practices, education and certification. Established in 2002, Iasa delivers programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world. A non-profit business association, Iasa is dedicated to the advancement and sharing of issues related to software, infrastructure, Information, and business architecture in the enterprise, product, education and government sectors. A key mechanism for knowledge sharing and education is the Iasa World Summit (Dec. 6/7, 2012 in Austin, TX), which draws IT Architects from across the globe to exchange ideas; share best practices and upgrade their skills.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the association is committed to improving the quality of the IT architecture industry by developing and delivering standards, education and accredited certification programs and services that optimize the development of the architecture profession. IASA has 35 Chapters in more than 25 countries, and has a member base and readership of 60,000 worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.iasaglobal.org. For more information about the Iasa World Summit, visit http://www.iasaworldsummit.org. For more information about chapter membership, contact Damaris Bode at 512-637-4272 or dbode@iasaglobal.org.
