Not only did the XBone RTM this week, but the call for papers for Agile 2014 opened. This year my friend K. Scott Allen and I are fortunate enough to be the chairs for the Development Practices and Craftsmanship track. And that means I am really hoping to hear from this community in the submissions process.
Both Scott and I want to bring this back to roots: Code. Software. Technical practices. You know, the stuff everyone wants to write index cards about. This track is for you, not your boss or your PM or your Scrum Master or anyone who doesn’t laugh at a good PInvoke() joke. And I want to hear from the awesome Elegant Code bloggers, commenters, and readers. You guys have amazing ideas. Let’s hear them.
The Official Track Description
The below description illustrates the tone we are going for in designing this track. With a healthy mix of technical fundamentals and experimental practices, anyone aspiring to create better software should find something of interest in this track.
"Great software developers constantly hone their craft, and this track offers numerous opportunities to do exactly that by reinforcing well-known agile technical practices and sharing emerging techniques being pioneered today.
Whether you are new to agile methods or a test-driven zealot like the track chairs, you’ll find sessions here you simply can’t miss. Topics here introduce new ways of achieving high levels of technical excellence and accountability. Developers of all experience levels, technology stacks, and passions will find education and inspiration in Develop Practices and Craftsmanship sessions. "
Sessions in this track should focus in one or more of the following areas:
- Fundamental practices, including design patterns, design principles, refactoring, and the various forms of test first development. Issues of interest to polyglot programmers also encouraged.
- Architecture and design, including API design, emergent designs, and testable designs, as well as designs for reliability, and systems distributed over HTTP.
- Team and individual Kaizen, including pair programming, mob programming, code katas, and intentional practice. Sessions focusing on improving teams are highly sought.
- Software Craftsmanship, including code quality, fundamental creation practices, multi-paradigm programming, responding to change, reducing rework, making the most of a career in software development, and learning how to build better software.
- In-depth technical topics, including async programming, developing for and with the cloud, continuous *anything*, and interesting data topics are all highly valued.
Got something potentially wacky in mind? Excellent! Tell us about it. If it fits into the spirit of Kaizen for developers, it probably belongs here.
Video
Please try to provide a link to an online video of you presenting a technical topic or speaking in public. Not only is your subject matter very important, but so are your skills as a teacher and presenter. Videos help us understand your style and get to know you as a presenter, so we make more informed decisions about designing the track experience.