Technical Agile Conference

This is a conference in Gothenburg for software developers, especially those with some experience of agile and a desire to improve their skills.

My colleagues at Praqma told me I could invite anyone! What an opportunity! These are the four speakers I chose to bring to Gothenburg in 2019 for the “Technical Agile Conference”. I make my living as a consultant and coach, working with local developers and helping them to succeed with the technical aspects of agile. This conference was a chance to extend my reach. To bring the originators and pioneers of important techniques, to our city. I am so happy these four speakers accepted my invitation! Let me tell you more about who they are.

James Grenning - “Test-Driven Development Guided by ZOMBIES”

James is one of the original signatories of the Agile Manifesto, and a hugely experienced software developer, particularly in embedded software. It’s a privilege to be able to bring him to Gothenburg, where we have so many embedded developers. TDD is a very important technique for agility. Developers in all languages and environments will benefit from hearing James’ take on it.

Åsa Liljegren - “Four Years of Constant Mob Programming - A Retrospective”

Mob programming is one of the most important techniques in my toolbox today as a technical agile coach. It’s a way for a team of software developers to work together effectively. Åsa is one of the most experienced people in Sweden (the world, even!) with this collaboration technique. I am really looking forward to hearing her insights and recommendations on mob programming.

Llewellyn Falco - “Test Driven Development with Approvals”

Llewellyn is one of my mentors, who showed me some really effective techniques for agile coaching with development teams. He invented a family of tools for Approval testing. Approval testing is a powerful technique that I’ve used myself in many contexts. I find it particularly helpful for testing legacy code but also for new development. I am so glad he is coming to Gothenburg and will be demonstrating how it works.

Simon Brown - “Software Architecture for Developers”

I invited Simon because he is the originator of the C4 method for visualizing software architecture. When I meet a new software development team, I often ask them to sketch their architecture for me. It helps me to understand their situation. I’ve noticed that the arrows, lines and boxes people usually draw don’t seem to follow any kind of standard, and can be quite hard to grasp. It’s usually fine, since they are there to explain their diagrams, but I feel they could communicate even better given a little more structure. I’m hoping people will learn Simon’s techniques, I think it will help (both them and me!).

Both talks and workshops

Each of the four speakers is giving a talk at the main event - the afternoon of the 13th May. In addition, each is giving a more in-depth workshop where you can learn more, either before or the day after. If you are pressed for time, just come for the afternoon and get some inspiration. However, I think the real value in meeting these experts lies in the detailed explanations and opportunities for discussion that you find in the workshops. If you can, I really recommend you sign up for one. You’ll get much more of a chance to learn the techniques that these experts have pioneered. They don’t come to Gothenburg often, I can tell you. Grab the opportunity while you can!