Thomas Betts

Denver

Lead Editor at InfoQ

Lead editor, software architecture and design @InfoQ; Sr principal engineer @Blackbaud; Lifelong computer nerd; Husband; Geek dad; Outdoorsy; Dog person; He/Him

Featured in: Favicon

infoq.com

vice.com

newsbreak.com Favicon

dln.com

mdpi.com

caranddriver.com Favicon

i-d.vice.com

Articles

If Architectural Experimentation Is So Great, Why Aren’t You Doing It?

1 month ago | infoq.com | Pierre Pureur |Kurt Bittner |Thomas Betts

Selling yourself and your stakeholders on doing architectural experiments is hard, despite the significant benefits of this approach; you like to think that your decisions are good but when it comes to architecture, you don’t know what you don’t know. Stakeholders don’t like to spend money on things they see as superfluous, and they usually see running experiments as simply "playing around".
Facilitating Software Architecture with Andrew Harmel-Law

2 months ago | infoq.com | Andrew Harmel-Law |Thomas Betts

In this episode, Thomas Betts speaks with Andrew Harmel-Law about his new book, Facilitating Software Architecture: Empowering Teams to Make Architectural Decisions. The conversation includes a discussion of what constitutes an architecturally significant decision, how the practice of architecture is evolving, and how architects have a role to facilitate software architecture, rather than being the only ones making architectural decisions.
The End of the Bronze Age: Rethinking the Medallion Architecture

2 months ago | infoq.com | Adam Bellemare |Thomas Betts

Write for InfoQ Feed your curiosity. Help 550k+ global senior developers each month stay ahead.Get in touch Operational and analytical use cases are not able to access relevant, complete, and trustworthy data reliably.
Building Green Software with Anne Currie and Sara Bergman

Jan 13, 2025 | infoq.com | Anne Currie |Sara Bergman |Thomas Betts

What Does It Mean to Be Green in IT? That's the question that begins chapter one in Building Green Software. In this episode, Thomas Betts is joined by two of the book's authors, Anne Currie and Sara Bergman. The discussion covers general themes and digs into some practical advice for all software practitioners.
アーキテクチュラル・インテリジェンス – 次のAI

Jan 8, 2025 | infoq.com | Thomas Betts

InfoQ ホームページアーティクルアーキテクチュラル・インテリジェンス – 次のAI アーキテクトはAIの誇大広告と実際のソフトウェアを区別する必要がある。曖昧なAIのビジョンではなく、LLMのような具体的なコンポーネントに基づいてシステムを設計する。 AIの要素をいつ、どこで、どのように使うかは、伝統的なトレードオフ分析による。まず、AIソフトウェアがアプリケーションに適しているかどうかを判断する。他のテクノロジーと同様、AIは創造的に使用もできるが、不適切に使用もできる。次に、AIを効果的に使用する方法を決定する。AIをサービスとして提供するAPIを使用する場合と、自分でホスティングする場合とのトレードオフを検討する。アーキテクトは、AIによって意思決定とコミュニケーション能力を強化でき、より良い設計と利害関係者間のより良い理解につなげることができる。原文リンク(2024-11-26)...
Architectural Intelligence – The Next AI

Nov 25, 2024 | infoq.com | Thomas Betts |Daniel Bryant

Architects need to separate AI hype from real software. Design systems based on tangible components such as LLMs, not a vague vision of AI. Determining how, where, and when to use AI elements comes down to traditional trade-off analysis. First, determine if AI software is a good fit for your application. Like any technology, AI can be used creatively, but inappropriately. Second, determine how to effectively use AI.
New "Laws" Announced at iSAQB Software Architecture Gathering

Nov 14, 2024 | infoq.com | Thomas Betts

During a panel discussion on November 12 at the iSAQB Software Architecture Gathering in Berlin, the topic of complexity in software led to a few eponymous "laws" to be proclaimed. The moderated discussion featured many small bits of advice for the audience of software architects and engineers, some of which were framed as "my law" to provide additional emphasis.
To Dare or not to Dare: the MVA Dilemma

Nov 13, 2024 | infoq.com | Pierre Pureur |Kurt Bittner |Thomas Betts

Technology Radars are a popular way of characterizing the risk of technology adoption. Technology Radars can help teams form experiments about the solution they are building as well as its architecture. Every product release is, or should be, an experiment about both the value that the team is delivering as well as the sustainability of their solution. These experiments must balance both business and technical risks in a way that business stakeholders can understand and support.
A Primer on AI for Architects with Anthony Alford

Sep 16, 2024 | infoq.com | Anthony Alford |Thomas Betts

This episode provides an overview of the real-world technologies involved in the umbrella phrase Artificial Intelligence. Anthony Alford explains just enough about machine learning, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, and other AI terms which today’s software architects need to be able to discuss.
How to Make Technical Debt Your Friend

Sep 10, 2024 | infoq.com | Pierre Pureur |Kurt Bittner |Thomas Betts

Incurring Technical Debt (TD) is a way to learn things, and to avoid over-investing in solutions to problems you may not yet fully understand. The idea that releases have to be perfect gets in the way of running experiments. TD reduces the cost of learning and the time it takes to get feedback. TD represents a deviation of your implemented solution from your ideal solution, but that ideal may not turn out to be correct. In other words, what you think is TD may not actually be TD.