Keynote Presentations
Jurassic Code
Billy Hollis, DotNetMasters
Wednesday, November 15 at 9 a.m.
When are today’s software development tools and technologies destined to become dinosaurs? Perhaps sooner than you think. Complexity in software development is reaching critical mass. New technologies, such as the new UI and communications capabilities of .NET FX 3, are forcing a phase change that makes current conceptual models of development obsolete. How do you chart your professional development in an era of overwhelming change? How will our tools have to change to deal with increasing complexity in software? No one knows all the answers, but previous cycles give us some hints of the coming changes, and we can examine new models from Google to Ruby for more clues. Come and hear Billy Hollis lay out his case for a new era of software development, and learn what he thinks we need to do to prepare for it.
Resistance is Futile: Making Best Practices Undeniable in Your Organization
Richard Hale Shaw, CEO, Richard Hale Shaw Group
Thursday, November 16 at 9 a.m.
An old saying goes, "Smart is learning from your own mistakes, but wise is learning from the mistakes of others." In the dynamic world of software development, a corollary might be: repeating your own mistakes is foolish, but perpetrating those of others -- outright destructive! Wise software developers have come to embrace Best Practices: from coding standards, to process and check-in policies, to requirements gathering, naming conventions or unit testing. But others continue to make -- and perpetrate -- the same errors, whether it's adhering to antiquated process (or no process), employing arbitrary coding standards (or those valid 20 years ago), or blatantly ignoring the benefits of unit tests (at the price of debugging sessions at 3 a.m.). The result? Otherwise well-meaning developers -- often members of your own team -- continue to ignore industry-wide, de facto best practices, and even attempt to subvert them.
Why do some get it and others don't? How can you convince others on your team to embrace Best Practices first hand? And how do you attack the inertia that seems to grip many large software groups who talk about Best Practices, but never implement them? In other words, how can you make assimilation inevitable?
In this talk, Richard will give you the intellectual ammunition to address these issues with your team, your Manager and your CIO. Even better, bring them along with you!
