About the New CPSA®-Advanced Level Module Green Software – Devel­opment of Resource-Efficient Appli­ca­tions (GREEN)

On August 20, the iSAQB intro­duced the new Advanced Level module Green Software – Devel­opment of Resource-Efficient Appli­ca­tions (GREEN).

GREEN focuses on devel­oping resource-efficient IT systems from a software architect’s perspective, covering topics from raising awareness in the company to designing energy-efficient archi­tec­tures, measuring and monitoring tools, and cloud operations.

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Wanner, one of GREEN’s module curators, gave the editorial team of the iSAQB blog an insightful interview on the content, intention, and relevance of the latest Advanced Level module Green Software – Devel­opment of Resource-Efficient Applications.

Why is the topic of Green IT so important from your point of view?

For a long time, IT was seen as the solution to many problems associated with climate change, but it has now become the subject of optimization consid­er­a­tions itself.

Ineffi­cient programming, often caused by the need for a fast time-to-market, was often compen­sated for by ever-faster hardware or more resources in the cloud. This path must be abandoned. The CO2 emissions caused by software must be consis­tently reduced. This can only be achieved if we see better energy efficiency in our daily work as software architects.

Added to this are the legal oblig­a­tions that apply to more and more companies. Reporting oblig­a­tions, for example, under the Corporate Sustain­ability Reporting Directive (CRSD), require knowledge of one’s emissions on the one hand and proce­dures and techniques to reduce them step by step on the other.

How can software architecture contribute to this?

Software architecture is one of the critical levers for energy-efficient software. The way it is operated is another primary lever for gener­ating fewer CO2 emissions. Both topics together occupy a central place in the curriculum. With knowledge of the energy efficiency of different architectural styles and patterns, the effects of different commu­ni­cation methods, and the influence of cloud service and deployment models, software archi­tects can effec­tively implement sustain­ability requirements.

And, of course, it’s all about quality requirements, which are the starting point when designing a software architecture: Energy efficiency or CO2 emission efficiency must be adequately considered and recon­ciled with other essential quality requirements.

There are also topics in the curriculum that are not directly related to software architecture. What are they about?

We see software archi­tects as having a central role in building software systems and being respon­sible for more than just designing the software architecture. Topics are inter­re­lated, and software architecture signif­i­cantly influ­ences software devel­opment, the devel­opment process, and, of course, the operation of the finished software.

For this reason, we also look at the inter­faces to other stake­holders and consider topics such as energy-efficient data handling, the influence of programming languages and runtime environ­ments, the use of managed services in the cloud, energy-efficient libraries, and the devel­opment of efficient build pipelines.

Measurement and monitoring is also an important part of the curriculum. Why?

Only if you can measure the energy consumption of an appli­cation, you know where improve­ments are really worth­while and whether the optimiza­tions carried out have had the desired effect. The latter, in particular, is extremely important, as otherwise, all optimization efforts are like driving in fog – you don’t know whether you are actually getting closer to your goal.

To this end, our curriculum includes the area of measurement methods and tools, where we look at which options are useful in different environ­ments, as well as the topic of measurement method­ologies to teach software archi­tects systematic proce­dures for measuring energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the best possible way. In particular, this also involves analyzing trends, drawing conclu­sions from them, and using business metrics to relate resources to performance.

How do you integrate practical relevance into the curriculum?

We have provided a series of exercises for the core chapters of the curriculum to underpin the theory with the appro­priate practical relevance. The exercises cover quality, measurement and monitoring, software architecture, and operation. The aim is to use practical examples to provide partic­i­pants with methods, techniques, and examples of tools that they can use directly in their own projects.

You would like to learn more about the new CPSA-Advanced Level module GREEN? Please visit the GREEN module web page.