Neal Ford
Live online courses, books, and videos on O’Reilly
Upcoming live online training courses
May 18, 2022
Software Architecture Foundations: Characteristics and Tradeoffs
Defining, Discovering, and Protecting Architecture Software systems consist of designs to both satisfy requirements and architecture characteristics, also known as non-functional requirements. Identify and preserving architecture characteristics is a key responsibility ...

May 23, 2022
Architecture for continuous delivery
Neal Ford leads a deep dive into the intersection of the architect's role and the engineering practices at the heart of continuous delivery, covering continuous integration, deployment pipelines and how to ...

May 24, June 16 & 30, 2022
Architectural Katas
Participants in Architectural Katas, moderated by Neal Ford, work together in small groups of their choosing to solve a challenge an actual organization is facing. Everyone gets the chance to practice ...

June 2, 2022
Software Architecture Hour: Cloud Native Architecture with Pratik Patel
Join us for a special conversation on cloud native architecture with Neal Ford and Java Champion Pratik Patel. They’ll discuss how developers can manage the complexity that cloud native architecture brings ...

June 9, 2022
Mastering Technical Presentations by Example
Join expert Neal Ford to learn techniques for building and delivering excellent presentations, using the pattern–anti-pattern format familiar to developers. You’ll explore presentation patterns across a wide range of topics, including ...

June 10, 2022
Software architecture by example
In this four-hour intensive course, Mark Richards and Neal Ford—software architects and the authors of numerous books and videos, including the popular video training course series Software Architecture Fundamentals—lead you on ...

June 13 & 14, 2022
Implementing Evolutionary Architectures
Apply key concepts, build fitness functions, and automate governance An evolutionary architecture supports incremental, guided change across multiple dimensions. The software development ecosystem exists in a state of dynamic equilibrium, where ...

June 17, 2022
Comparing Software Architectures
Join experts Neal Ford and Mark Richards for a comparison of various aspects of the same architectural solution, developed independently by isolated teams. Each team’s solution highlights the fact that there ...

June 22, 2022
Software Architecture Superstream: Soft Skills Are the Hardest Part
Developers and architects like to solve technical problems, not people problems. However, as Gerald Weinberg was famous for saying, “No matter what they tell you, it’s always a people problem.” Exceptional ...

June 29, 2022
Architecture foundations: Styles, patterns, and trade-offs
Join expert Neal Ford for a survey of architecture patterns, applied through modern engineering practices and perspectives. For each pattern, you’ll learn the history, philosophy, rationale, topology, optimum uses, and negative ...

July 6, 2022
Communication Styles for Distributed Architectures and Microservices
Join expert Neal Ford to learn the foundations of distributed architecture communication and discover how they apply to microservices. You’ll explore a new measure, the architecture quantum, to help analyze and ...

July 12, 2022
Software Architecture Foundations: Characteristics and Tradeoffs
Defining, Discovering, and Protecting Architecture Software systems consist of designs to both satisfy requirements and architecture characteristics, also known as non-functional requirements. Identify and preserving architecture characteristics is a key responsibility ...

July 21, 2022
Architecture: The Hard Parts
Join experts Mark Richards and Neal Ford as they guide you through the jungle of software architecture’s hard parts. Over three interactive, scenario-driven hours, you’ll learn how to choose an appropriate ...

September 28, 2022
Software Architecture Superstream: Software Architecture Fundamentals
There’s no single—or clearly defined—path to becoming a software architect. But these sessions will give you a solid grasp of the fundamentals, preparing you to implement the strategies that will help ...

November 30, 2022
Software Architecture Superstream: Architecture Meets Data
With an eye to the future, many organizations have made the move to microservices as a means of decomposing monolithic legacy systems. But what does a distributed system mean for delivering ...

Learning Paths

Bio
Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery. Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm.
Neal has a degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University specializing in languages and compilers and a minor in mathematics specializing in statistical analysis. He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, and video presentations. He is also the author of 6 books, including the most recent Presentation Patterns and Functional Thinking. Given his degree, Neal is a bit of a language geek, with affections including but not limited to Ruby, Clojure, Java, Groovy, JavaScript, Scala and C#/.NET. His primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal is an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 300 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 2000 presentations. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his web site at nealford.com. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at nford@thoughtworks.com.