Meet the speakers – Part I. Registration on!

Feb 10, 2016 by Madalina Botez in Announcements

Live coding. Architecture & Software Design. Quality practices. DevOps. Technical Leadership. And more…

These are just a few of the topics you will hear about at the 4th edition of I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016, taking place in the heart of Bucharest, 19-20 May! We are going to welcome you with an intense program and an amazing line-up of speakers!

We are honored to welcome a great number of top-notch speakers, from 16 countries, to share their stories about the latest technologies and trends. In this blog post, we will share more about 5 speakers and more will come later.

Alastair Smith, Software Developer at Redgate Software Ltd., Cambridge, UK

Test-Drive your Database (Live coding)

Learn how to make database development fun again, by applying all your favourite modern development practices to your SQL code!

Andreas Leidig, Developer, Agile Mentor at msgGillardon AG, Bretten, Deutschland

Are your Mocks mocking at you ? (Live Coding)

How reliable are your mocks when it comes to integration?

Thomas Sundberg, Developer at Think Code AB, Stockholm, Sweden

How deep are your tests?

You find bugs, even with 100% test coverage. Why? Let me show you. And how to address it using TDD

Sandro Mancuso, Software Craftsman, founder of Codurance at Codurance, London, UK

Session to be announced

Clément Bouillier, Software Craftsman at DevLyon, Lyon, France

CQRS & EventSourcing (Workshop)

Learn by yourself the basics about these concepts, through coding with prepared koans

Want to challenge the current programming practices as these software craftsmen are doing? Want to experience new techniques, debate on the existing ones or even pair program in the I T.A.K.E Unconference space?

Get your Super Early Bird ticket today!

Stay tuned. We will continue publishing more about the program, speakers and the dynamic learning practices awaiting you.

Thrilled to see you in May!

[Video] Henk Boelman – Unleash some AI into the wild

Apr 18, 2018

Want to know more about Unleashing some AI into the Wild? Here we have a short teaser from Henk Boelman.

He started out as a software developer in the late ’90s and later moved on to the role of architect. He now guides organisations in their cloud adventure, with a strong focus on cloud native software development.

Watch the teaser of his keynote presentation!

Putting the Science in Computer Science with Felienne Hermans

Nov 26, 2014

Most conversations about best practices in software development focus on personal preferences: Vim versus emacs, static versus dynamic typing, Java versus C#. Other domains use research to settle such questions. Couldn’t software development benefit from science as well?

Felienne Hermans, assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, had a very engaging talk at I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2014 about experiments designed and run to answer questions such as:

What is the best programming language?
Do design patterns help in any way?
Is Linus’ law correct?
Are spreadsheets code?

Watch her talk @ I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2014 edition to find out the results.

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

16 years of legacy code with mob programming and Lego | Joe Wright

Feb 13, 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.

Joe Wright, Senior Developer, Coach & Architect, helps people deliver software that’s well designed, fully tested and released early. You will learn from his case study at #itakeunconf about how a team can go from individuals to a mob.

speaker-badge-professional-status-joe-wright

#1. Share with us 5 things from your experience that helped you grow & become the professional you are today

# Make time for deep work

Set a few hour blocks aside each week that you will dedicate to improving yourself or creating something each week. As a parent, I’ve had to start doing this by getting up early to grab two hours each day. During this time you can learn a skill, practice coding, write a book or make a podcast. It’s far too easy to let distractions rule your life. Make time to do something you are proud of.

# Become a facilitator

I think everyone is terrified of public speaking. It’s an unnatural thing to do. Our ancestors learned this behavior as a survival instinct – if lots of carnivores are looking at you then you are probably the dinner. Time to run.

Getting over this is an important step that enables you to have all sorts of life experiences. Speaking at conferences, leading workshops and meeting interesting new people. The way I beat the fear was by volunteering to co-organise a well-attended meetup. Each month I would have to get up in front of a room of my peers and say some boilerplate about welcome and the agenda. But just that act of getting up and speaking was enough to dull the fear over time. I’ve not been made into dinner yet.

As well as building yourself up as a speaker, it helps improve your network of people. People like speaking to the host at an event and it gives you an easy opportunity to learn about those people, then take a mental note when you might want to get into contact with them in the future.

# Ask for help

Don’t feel you have to figure everything out yourself or read up online. Reach out and ask people for help.

As you spend more time in your career you meet more people – and one day you’ll have a question you’d love to ask them. It’s even easier now with social media and video conferencing. People will give you 30 minutes of time online or meet you over coffee to give you their advice if they think you’ve got an interesting question to answer.

I always have a list of three things I want advice on. You never know who you are going to meet.

# Improve in more than one dimension

At first, newly minted developers want to get projects released and in users hands. During this, you try to get better at creating software that can be changed to meet their needs. Eventually, newer technology comes out, which promises to solve the problem of getting code out quicker and is easier to change.

It’s quite easy to fall into the trap of just learning technology stacks. This can be rewarding, but that’s not the only way to improve as a developer and meet people’s needs.

Seek out opportunities to see the world from the other functions in software. If you tester goes on holiday then volunteer to stand in for them. If you have an ops team then ask to pair on making the release process smoother. Facilitate a retrospective for another team. Run a usability session with real world users to see how your product is used. Stepping into another roles shoes helps build empathy, which will allow you to work better with others people in the future.

If you tech stack isn’t challenging you then concentrate on improving your “soft skills”. Teach someone how it works. Figure out ways to promote and resolve conflict on your team. Fix the root causes of communication and process issues that slow you down.

# Find people that will challenge you

It can be hard to get feedback about how you are doing. Are your ideas valid? Often you can’t get this feedback in your workplace. Seek out a group of people or a person that is willing to challenge how you think.

For me, this is the Lean Agile space and my local code craftsmanship group.

Consider these people that challenge you your core group. The way you work should be consistent with the ideals of that group. So don’t ever worry about saying what you think at work, just make sure you stay true to the principles of your core group.

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

How can I reduce communication, approval, and tech debt issues from slowing down my team?
How can I measure and improve how a dev team spends their time?
How can I get started doing this at my work?

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

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (book)
Facilitation advice – available here
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox (book)

Want to join Joe, +30 international speakers and ~300 software crafters from around Europe?