The Authors
Gernot Starke
Dr. Gernot Starke (innoQ Fellow) is co-founder and longstanding user of the (open source) arc42 documentation template. For more than 20 years he works as software architect, coach and consultant, conquering the challenges of creating effective software architectures for clients from various industries.
In 2008 Gernot co-founded the International Software Architecture Qualification Board (iSAQB e.V.) and since then supports it as an active member.
2014 he founded the (open source) Architecture Improvement Method aim42.
Gernot has authored several (German) books on software architecture and related topics.
Gernot studied computer science at the Institute of Technology in Aachen (RWTH Aachen) and finished with a Diploma. He then worked as a developer and consultant for smaller software companies, before coming back to university for international research on methodical software engineering. 1995 he received his PhD from Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria (Prof. Gerhard Chroust for his thesis on “Software Process Modeling”.
He then joined Schumann AG in Cologne and did consulting and development work for several years. He became technical director of the “Object Reality Center”, a joint-venture of Sun Microsystems and Schumann Consulting AG and lead the first European Java Project (the Janatol project for Hypobank in Munich).
Since then he has consulted and coached numerous clients from various domains, mainly finance, insurance, telecommunication, logistics, automotive and industry on topics around software engineering, software development and development process organization.
Gernot was an early adopter of the agile movement and has successfully worked as Scrum master in agile projects.
He lives in Cologne with his wife (Cheffe Uli) and his two (nearly grown-up) kids, two cats and a few Macs.
Email Gernot Starke or contact him via Twitter @gernotstarke.
Michael Simons
Michael Simons is a father of two, husband, geek, programmer and passionate cyclist.
Michael took his apprenticeship at the FZ Jülich and studies at FH Aachen: Campus Jülich. He is a PRINCE2 ® Registered Practitioner and sometimes torn between the roles of an architect and project manager. In 2018, he was announced a Java Champion.
Nowadays, Michael works as a Senior Software engineer at Neo4j in the Spring Data team. In a previous life he worked at ENERKO INFORMATIK, an Aachen based company dealing with GIS system and has a background focussed on geographic information systems for utilities and price calculation at the energy market. In his brief time at INNOQ he helped customers modernize their application systems. Michael is known for having a certain passion for SQL and Spring. You can buy Michaels book about modern software development with Spring Boot here: here
Michael is a dedicated blogger and engaged in various open source projects. You’ll find his stuff starting at michael-simons.eu.
You can reach Michael via email or on Twitter as @rotnroll666.
Stefan Zörner
From the Bayer AG via IBM and oose to embarc. Stefan Zörner has twenty years of experience in IT and still looks forward to the future with excitement. He supports clients in solving architecture and implementation problems. In interesting workshops he demonstrates how to use practical design tools as well as spreading enthusiasm for real life architectural work.
About embarc
Hamburg-based embarc is your first choice for architectural projects. We are an independent consulting company, working creatively to find the best solution for you. Our customers trust us because we actively shape their systems, technologies and platforms as needed. This meets the long-term goal to gain optimum value from your IT investments.
Our team of consultants are generally recognized experts, with hands-on experience from various international projects. Technical and professional expertise, combined with efficient approaches are the leading characteristics of our architectural and engineering work.
Document your software architecture decisions and principles effectively and thoroughly!
Do you want to build a strong foundation for architecture documentation across your organization? Do you want to use a standardized template like e.g. arc42?
Architecture documentation isn’t what you might think of first: baroque diagrams, large concepts, etc. Start your architectural overview with only a few basic ‘ingredients’. Our cheat sheet gives you a quick and helpful introduction.
We also support you with specific coaching, workshops or initial presentations for documentation topics. Key benefits for your team:
- A common understanding of architecture decisions / concepts / solutions.
- Appropriate communication to different target audiences.
- A proper basis for discussions / reflection / architecture reviews.
- Get new team members efficiently up to speed.
- Learn from our best practices from many other projects.
Please find more information on our website.
Ralf D. Müller
More than twenty years of experience in web development have shaped Ralf D. Müller’s experience and thinking. And as trained Six Sigma Black Belt, the productivity of the whole is most important for him. That’s why he dedicated much of his spare time to make the process to document a software project even easier. No question that the arc42 template is at the heart of this process. In addition, docToolchain helps development and architecture teams to implement the Docs-as-Code approach.
Contacting the Authors
In case you have questions or suggestions concerning the examples, arc42 or software architecture stuff in general, please let us know.
- Gernot Starke
- Just email Gernot Starke or contact him via Twitter as @gernotstarke.
- Hendrik Lösch
- Just email Hendrik Lösch or contact him via his website hendrik-loesch.de.
- Michael Simons
- Just email Michael Simons or contact him via Twitter as @rotnroll666.
- Ralf D. Müller
- Just email Ralf D. Müller or contact him via Twitter: @RalfDMueller.
- Stefan Zörner
- Just email Stefan Zörner or contact him via Twitter: @StefanZoerner.