I published v1 of my Composite Applications Framework document last Thursday and am pretty pleased with the result. As with all things, it will evolve and improve over time, but I think it was a decent first salvo. I am indebted to Mike Walker and Todd Biske for their input. My favorite part about blogging is being able to have access to and input from such brilliant people.

As I worked back through the draft of the document, I realized that some key visuals were missing in relation to the various composition terms I wrote about in my last post, as well as a view of the CAF architecture. I don't have time to go into these in detail, but I'll post them here. Feel free to refer back to my previous two posts for more context. As always, I'd love any feedback that anyone is willing to throw my way.

This first image was designed to depict the relationship between some of the composition terms I used in my last post.

The second image expands on the first, but includes example tiers, containers and assets. Many of these examples are specific to the Microsoft universe, specifically MOSS 2007, while others are generic.

The final image depicts many of the technologies that I believe play a key role in a CAF. This is not meant to be an end-all-be-all list, or even the best depiction available. Just food for thought.

So there you have it.

On a personal note, I'm off for a two week computer-less vacation this afternoon, so the blog will be silent during that time. I'll be back in the swing of things on September 22nd and hopefully I won't be so buried in the blogs I read that I'll have a moment to write a thing or two that weekend.

• The Importance of Mentor - Joe Says: "I say if you want to do something with your life and are willing to make a life-changing and risky change in your life to pursue that goal, then stop being such a chicken and go for it." Agreed. Great post Joe.

• SOA and the ROI - If you sell SOA without ties to MDM, Portals or Process Improvement initiatives, you're just selling a technology with the ability for reuse, but no framework to foster reuse.

• Periodic Table of Visualization Methods - Just about every conceivable way to visualize information is on this table, with examples. A great resource to keep around for a visual learner such as I.