I was fortunate to be asked to participate as a mentor to a Computer Systems student in our Bachelor of Technology program this fall. This is a real honour and something that I value having the opportunity to do.
I graduated from BCIT in 1987 and the skills taught me by my instructors and my classmates set the tone for my career. Thanks to the BCIT Alumni Association and the BCIT Student Association for this opportunity.
Below is an interview I gave in the student newspaper, The Link:
Leo de Sousa may have a background in IT Services, but his advice on life – and how to balance – it can translate to students in any field
Long days. Late nights. Extra hours. Group projects. Debt.
BCIT students have a, shall we say, unique experience. For many, it’s the toughest period of their lives. Following dreams and getting credential many times means going in the hole financially and giving up life as you know it to pursue studies. It’s a big step, a big risk; you name it. Read more...
Here are the Day 2 sessions linked into one blog post. Again, lots of good content and multiple sessions that got me thinking about how to leverage the Microsoft capabilities we already own. I wrote mini posts on each session and linked them here for your easy reference.
** Updated post with links to slide decks – Dec 21, 2009
Wednesday Dec 10th
Session 7 – Unified Communications Overview – slides
Session 8 – Office Communication Server Case Study
Session 9 – Windows Server 2008 R2 Strategy and Future Directions – slides
Session 10 – Live@edu Overview
Session 11 – Security Microsoft Strategy Overview – slides
Session 12 – Education Products Strategy – slides
Day 2 was another full day with plenty of excellent information. Thanks to Microsoft for hosting this excellent event. I now have a much clearer understanding of what Microsoft can bring to the table. Now, our task is to understand and architect a roadmap to leverage our newly created Active Directory, migrate to Exchange, create and deliver a SharePoint platform service and protect it all using a multi-layer security approach using ForeFront. Read more...
Session 12 Jon Perera, GM Strategy, Education
Higher Education studies about students and institutions. Looking at broad trends and their impacts on education delivery. Microsoft is making a commitment from a number of fronts – education software, programs and policy & advocacy.
Interaction with over 300,000 schools across 115+ countries and 900 dedicated full time MS employees working in this area. MS invests $485M USD in Partners in Learning.
Higher Education Approach
- engaging student, empowering educators
- enabling infrastructure agility
- fostering research & community
Software Roadmap Read more...
- divided between servers and services (software and services)
- tiers : applications, developer tools, programming model, application services, relational database, operating system, systems management
- academic toolkit (coming Jan 2010) – commitment to deliver MS Office with Higher Ed capabilities
- interactive classroom (integrated PowerPoint and OneNote) – this is an add-in for PowerPoint and OneNote, cool interactivity between faculty and students
- Semblio for digital content (packager for content) <- very interesting for our faculty includes assessment tools and powerful simulations – requires a client install for the Semblio player, web player by fall 2010 (this is a Silverlight platform)
- mathematics (embedded into Word)
Session 6 Chris Pirie, GM, Microsoft Learning Marketing and Sales Mgmt
The Skills Imperative – bridging the skills gamp and increasing deployment – 3 pillars
- Digital Literacy – reaching the masses through technology readiness
- IT Academy Program – reaching future tech leaders through competency and career enablement
- Commercial Gold Certified Training – driving deployment through career enhancement
Channels for Microsoft Learning
- Extended Classroom
- Online Learning
- Certifications
Provided some stats on aging IT workforce, global IT employment growth about why this is important to Microsoft
The Microsoft Ecosystem in Canada http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship (IDC report)
IT Academy Overview – BCIT might want to consider joining http://www.microsoftitacademy.com
- essential level – digital content for Digital literacy, Operating System and Office applications
- advanced level – supports content for Office, Server and Developer products
- will be part of the Campus Agreement in 2010
Jeff Johnson – IT Academy Area Lead North America
Diploma/Degree + Certification = Career Advantage
I have followed the development of the the Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession with great interest over the past year. The group has built a strong following and gathered sufficient momentum to be a force for the advocacy of Enterprise Architecture as a profession. After laying out a mission, vision, goals and core values, the group published the Enterprise Architect’s Professional Oath. Over 1000 people made the commitment to the Oath and signed up.
I became aware of this initiative via Mike Kavis (@madgreek65) and Bob McIlree (@rmcilree) and the buzz in the Twitterverse (@CAEAP). Bob asked me to consider participating in the creation of the EA Professional Practice Guide. Here is the goal of the document:
The Enterprise Architecture Professional Practice Guide is being created as the leading business practice document for enterprise architects to advance their own practices, as well as forming a crucial reference set of information for education bodies.
Furthermore, this guide will be utilized in the Registered Enterprise Architect exam preparation and will cover a range of ethical, legal, financial, management, marketing and administrative issues. The essential knowledge needed for planning a thriving Enterprise Architecture practice under a vast set of scenarios will be created and maintained by industry leaders for the industry and the public. Read more...
We are interviewing candidates for the Manager of our Program Management Office this week. These unfortunate economic times seem to generate a high number of quality applicants. Not so good for them but really good for us.
I approach an interview as an opportunity for the selection committee and the applicant to learn from each other. Learning about applicant’s experiences and the organizations they work in provides insight into what is going on in industry. Recently, we began asking our applicants to make a short presentation. This is a great way to see how the person communicates concepts and ideas as well as handling questions.
Inevitably, there are always gems that the person communicates. When I hear them, I write them down, take back the idea to my team to implement quickly. Here are some ideas: Read more...
- When an item in a project status report goes to a “yellow” state, only let it remain there for two weeks. Either it is resolved and moves to “green” or it needs more attention and moves to “red”
- Sometimes you run a project using “plexecution” which means you doing planning and execution at the same time … we do this a lot!
I am at the point in my career where I feel the need to get a Masters degree to advance my career. The question is which one to go for? I have been asking friends and colleagues so I thought I would ask all of you.
Here are my criteria for the program:
- suitable for a senior IT leader who is working to move up to a CIO/CTO level
- focused on Enterprise Architecture and Technology Management
- offered in part time mode over several years
- delivered in an blended online/F2F delivery mode
- some residency portions would be good because I enjoy F2F interaction
- looking to start the program in September 2009
Please post any suggestions as comments. Thank you for helping me!
I completed two training programs in December. One program I wrote about in this post was the Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals from Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research International. Good course run by Dr Scott Bernard who walked the group of students through his EA3 Cube Methodology from his book. This was an online course with students from around the world. I especially enjoyed the conference calls and the weekly discussion topics as forums to interact with my fellow students. Here is the link to the work we did as students populating the EA3 Repository for a fictitious aerospace company. I plan on registering for the Advanced Enterprise Architecture course which runs from Jan to Mar 2009. Once I complete that course, Carnegie Mellon will issue me a Certified Enterprise Architect designation.
The second was a series of courses from the Sauder School of Business, Executive Education program at the University of British Columbia resulting in a Certificate in Management Excellence. These courses addressed a serious gap in my resume in the realm of management skills. The courses were face to face and required high interaction with the instructor and the other students. I now have a set of skills and reference materials that will serve me well in the future. Here is the list of courses I took: Read more...
In September, I enrolled in the Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals online course at Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research International in the School of Computing Science. The course consists of watching an online lecture, answering and commenting on a weekly question and participating in a student project to create architecture artifacts for a fictious aerospace company.
The course is taught be Dr Scott Bernard who is the author of the EA 3 Cube I met at the University of Alaska in May. Scott wrote a book that I recommend reading called Introduction to Enterprise Architecture that introduces Scott’s concept of a EA cube as a respository model.
The course has been a good experience and interacting with students from all around the world really helps broaden my thinking and understanding.
I will be posting more about this course and its followup Advanced Enterprise Architecture over the next year. My goal is to complete both courses and earn the Certified Enterprise Architect designation from Carnegie Mellon.
Are there programs or courses you are working on in EA? I would be very interested to know. I plan on looking for a Masters program with EA as the focus to apply to for next fall.
September is always a busy time for Higher Education. This is BCIT’s big term startup in North America and we try to keep our technology changes to a minimum to ensure good service to our students, faculty and staff.
On Sept 4th, I completed one year as the Manager, Business Application Services and Enterprise Architecture. It was a great year in which I learned far more than I ever imagined in the areas of leadership, planning, team development and portfolio management. I am very fortunate to have a great team to lead and have mentors on the management team to learn from. Thanks Team!! I am looking forward to this next year as we begin to leverage the ERP upgrade from July 2008 to deliver new services to BCIT.
On a professional development side, I am working to complete a Masters Certificate in Management Excellence from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. I also enrolled into the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research Certified Enterprise Architect program. This program is taught by Dr Scott Bernard who I met on my trip to the University of Alaska. I am the Student Project Manager and will be working with a large group of students to deliver a populated EA model for a fictious aerospace company. We have students from around the globe on this project. Read more...