The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) is aiming to ramp up its activities by recruiting additional key staff around the world, hosting a series of Open House events and establishing a new European HQ in Ireland.

Leaving Microsoft to join the organization is Matt Deacon. The former chief architectural adviser for Microsoft UK's developer and platform group will now work to accelerate the development of the IT architect profession by expanding his own personal efforts speaking to and engaging with the developer community at large.

Keen to differentiate and define and the role of the software developer as opposed to the software architect, IASA is keen to shake of the timeworn joke of Q. what is a software architect? A. a developer or a program manager in a clean shirt. To provide some solid context to the role, IASA's own bloggers talk about how architectural design is focused on the mechanics of the software solution from program control flow, management of component locations and how the team should aim to interact and work with class design responsibilities.

Writing on the IASA blog last month, Scott Whitmire said, "When an architect creates an architecture, whether a brief description or a diagram, they are designing. Design is thus the fundamental skill for all architects. It is what we do. Our designs and architectures communicate a lot of information to various audiences, but there is more to than that. A design is an hypothesis that a system or structure built to the design, using the specified tools and materials, will perform as specified, for the specified purposes, over the specified duration, without fail. This is a lot to ask of a design, yet, that’s exactly what we as architects are claiming."

"Architecture by its very nature requires that an architect maintain a view of the whole system as it is being designed. We cannot afford to lose site of the forest as we get lost in the trees. In every large system construction effort, someone must maintain a whole systems view of the project lest individual teams starting moving in different directions. This role falls to the architect," added Whitmire.