USNAF - Microsoft's National Architect Forum

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/usnaf__microsofts_national_architect_forum.htm]

I just got back from Microsoft's National Architect Forum in Vail, Colorado - and wow! To be at a conference with 200 top architects was humbling. There are several big things I saw:

1. Microsoft is really maturing on Enterprise Architecture and agile processes.
2. Paul Glen spoke (author of the great book Leading Geeks). A lot of good insight about how to manage geeks.
3. There's a lot of good architects out there.

Perhaps the easiest thing to describe was Paul's closing speech. He had several good points from his book:

• Geeks are different than other people because their productivity is based on thinking not behavior.
• Power is useless with geeks because power only controls behavior, but Geeks deliver productivity via thought.
• "Geekwork" is different than normal work. For example, in geekwork because technology moves so fast, the moment you step away from implementing code to become a manager, technology moves on. Therefore managers often know less about direct coding than the geeks they manage. In most other fields, managers know more than the people they manage.