Immutable data

May 05, 2016 by Madalina Botez in  Announcements

Enjoy the following series of interviews with the speakers, top-notch software crafters from across Europe, joining  I T.A.K.E Unconference, Bucharest, 19-20 May. Discover the lessons learned and what drives them to challenge the known path in their field. 

Ricardo J. Mendez, founder at Numergent, is a software developer with 20 years of practice. He will share in his talk at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016 more about immutable data.

 

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#1. SHARE TOP 5 THINGS YOU DID THAT HELPED YOU GROW & BECOME THE PROFESSIONAL YOU ARE TODAY

Starting my own business, leaving the comfort of a company where you get a certain sense of security by deriving a regular salary, and having to deal with the hidden iceberg of new skills  I had to learn but hadn’t realized I didn’t even know about.
Joining my first start up, which wasn’t the same as a usual job, nor with the degree of control of just running my own business, was a great learning experience on how to deal with uncertainty while still aiming to provide a measure of direction.
Realizing that, as a developer, your job is not to deliver code. Your job is to keep the user happy, and delivering code is only a part of that. It requires a mental shift from the technology-focused mentality one tends to have as an engineer.
Working with distributed teams, and learning to adapt to the different work and communication styles of people from different countries, has made a huge difference in adaptability, and has taught me to not assume the message is always getting across.
Going through several technology trends and epochs, seeing language and platform flame wars rage and abate, trying a bit of everything, helps come to grips with the idea that a language or a platform is just a tool, and it’s what you do with it that matters.

 

#2. What challenges will the participants find solutions to during your session at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016?

The idea that being unable to modify your data can bring more flexibility is unintuitive.
However, the bigger our codebases grow, the harder it becomes to find out if a refactoring process, or even a seemingly small change, will have a negative impact. Test suites can reduce this uncertainty, but normally only inform us of a problem *after* we’ve made a change.  There’s usually no way to know, in advance, how time consuming the side effects of a modification will be.
A shift in mentality towards data immutability, whatever the language we are using, will help structure the code and functionality in a way that makes it easier to grow and change down the road.

 

#3. What else would you like to share with participants ?

I assemble and lead project-specific teams to tackle challenges involving interaction design, data and open source. I’ve been working on software for over 20 years, across multiple industries – from desktop tools, to banking and financial institutions, to healthcare, to gaming.
I usually work with distributed teams, as I’d rather take the expertise where I find it than expect it to be around the corner, and it leads to interesting, varied teams with different perspectives.
A voracious reader, of both technical and non-technical books, it would be strange to find me without one or two tomes in progress.  This extends to platforms and languages – I very much enjoy kicking the tires on both, always looking for something new to learn.

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Want to join Ricardo and many more software crafters from around Europe?Join I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016!

Remote pair programming

Apr 08, 2017

Enjoy the following series of interviews with the speakers, top-notch software crafters from across Europe, joining  I T.A.K.E Unconference, Bucharest, 11-12 May. Discover the lessons learned and what drives them to challenge the known path in their field.

Raimo Radczewski is a freelancing software craftsman living in Berlin, Germany. He’s organizing Berlin’s Software Craftsmanship Community where he supports craftspeople with professionalizing and sharpening their skills, but also reflect on their current practices and how they can work better as teams. At #itakeunconf he will be sharing about Remote Pair-programming. 

 

 

#1. Please share with us 5 things you did that helped you grow and become the professional you are today

I think the most important thing that shaped my career has been the Software Craftsmanship movement. I first went to an OpenSpace in 2012, then Coderetreats, then SoCraTes, then organizing OpenSpaces and such. The community has really supported me and helped me grow in every professional aspect I could think of.

 

#2. What challenges will the participants find solutions to during your session at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017?

The most challenging part of working remote is keeping an inter-human connection to the person on the other side to make up for the tools that so rarely work. It also helps to use the least-broken tools and find a structure that works for the individuals that want to pair up.

#3. Recommend for the participants 3 sources you find inspiration from and would help them better understand you

I draw most of my inspiration from visiting and organizing events in the communities. Additionally, the Software Craftsmanship Slack Team is a great place to start discussing with craftspeople all over the world.

Want to join Raimo and ~300 software crafters from around Europe?

Register now for I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017!

Countdown to I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016

Feb 05, 2016

Great news! The final preparations for I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016 program are done!

Our team of reviewers finished the draft program. 100 proposals, from speakers from 20 countries, were received to the Call for Speakers. We are looking forward to let you know which of them will make it to the final program.

As a sneak peak, we can tell you that lots of live coding and exciting talks & workshops are in row. As we are finishing up the details about the 4th edition of I T.A.K.E Unconference, we invite you to have a look at the previous editions.

Here it is a selection of our favorite highlights:

 

#1

I T.A.K.E Unconference has become a unique meeting place for top notch technology craftsmen. During a 2-day program, they get involved in talks and workshops that foster peer-learning and challenge the known paths.

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#2

A great line-up of keynotes speakers enables the inspiring and dynamic learning atmosphere.

#3

We wrote code, talked code and presented code

 

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#4

Both the participants, and the speakers could join a technical Open Space, where they shared ideas and learnt from each other, engaging in professional conversations, Q&A sessions and live coding.

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#5

The participants, passionated coders, competed with their peers, taking a set of challenges that put their skills to the test. Gadgets like a drone or an iPad were the rewards for the winners.

 

#6

Women speakers, as well as academic speakers enriched the I T.A.K.E Unconference participants’ experience with valuable insights and stories. Additionally, the women in IT campaign brought into the audience’s attention some of the most amazing ladies who made a contribution to the development of the tech field.

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#7

Happy we’ve had the chance to work with amazing speakers, participants, volunteers, partners, and sponsors. Looking forward to the next editions, too!

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We would love to see you in I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016 top moments! Stay tuned for the program announcement and registration opening! If you would like to hear the news first, sign up here

How we did it: The Story of a Website with Andreas Leidig

Nov 26, 2014

Andreas Leidig has broad experience in object oriented software development and agile practices. He started programming years ago with Smalltalk and worked as an agile coach for a few years. Nowadays he is working full-time in developing enterprise software products.

His talk is about how to set up a community project through a professional use of state-of-the-art technologies and collaboration methods: node.js, continuous integration, github, javascript, evolving design, noSql, testing, software craftsmanship, XP. A fly through the architecture, design and specific aspects of their product.

Enjoy his presentation @ I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2014 edition.

Check out more about I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2015 or see directly the Schedule.

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