Code and win a cool gadget: Programming Contest

May 16, 2016 by Madalina Botez in  Announcements

I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016 is right ahead of us: almost 300 software crafters from Europe will challenge, change & improve the world of software craftsmanship.

This year edition offers the convergence of a technical-centric event combined with an audience of international top-notch participants, networking opportunities & a space where new ideas spark.

Are you up to a challenge?

But wait…this is not all. We’ve prepared for you a set of challenges that will put your coding skills to test. Join the programming contest, show your coding skills in a competition with software crafters across Europe & get the chance to win one of the cool prizes we have prepared: a Samsung Galaxy S7 (offered by Mozaic Works) or a Samsung Gear Smartwatch (offered by MozaicLabs).

 

AndroidPIT-Samsung-galaxy-s7-4                                                  gear-s-black

 

HOW THE PROGRAMMING CONTEST WORKS?

Well, this is simple. We try to automate the process as much as possible. For the moment the instructions are as simple as:
  • Register for THE contest on May 19 (the link to register will be communicated in the morning of 19th May)
  • Solve the challenges
  • Submit the solutions until May 20, 2 pm
Really cool: you can use ANY of the following programming languages: Java, C#, PHP, C++.

WHO WILL REVIEW YOUR CODE?

The Jury is built of Software Craftsman Fellows from Europe – names soon to be announced. They will grade each challenge you took. There will be just a few challenges, and taking all of them may lead you to the highest score. So the more you solve the closer to win.
Don’t miss the Programming Contest as well as many other hands-on sessions at I T.A.K.E. Unconference, 19-20 May, Bucharest.

Impact Mapping | Patrick Baumgartner

Feb 15, 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.

 

Patrick Baumgartner works as a Software Craftsman and passionate Agilista at 42talents. His biggest goal is to improve everyone’s workplace in IT. At #itakeunconf, he will run an Impact Mapping workshop.

 

speaker-badge-professional-status-patrick-baumgartner

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

  • having a mentor who supports you is great and helps you to challenge your ideas and decisions
  • being curious helps you to continuously learn new things
  • teaching others helps you to get better on the topic and you learn how to explain things to others
  • meeting continuously new people to create new ideas and get inspiration
  • having enough rest so that your brain has time for recreation

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

[ctt template=”12″ link=”A831F” via=”no” ]With Impact Mapping you will learn an excellent strategic planning technique that helps you to look at your challenges from different angles[/ctt]
If someone wants to have something solved, he often has already a concrete idea in mind and tells you how to implement it.
With changing the focus and looking at the Why, Who, How and the What your final solution might be entirely different compared to the initial suggestion. You will realize that you can use this technique for nearly everything.

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

  • Learn from and with others, by getting involved in local / international practitioners communities. For example,  we run in Zurich a monthly Software Craftsmanship Meetup with very diverse topics
  • Attend conferences to get inspired by the talks and workshops, as well as the discussions with participants and other speakers.
  • Take time for yourself, relax, free your mind and new ideas and thoughts will pop up automatically!

ITAKE_2017

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

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

Meet the speakers – Part 3

Mar 07, 2016

Software craftsmen from more than 15 countries will meet in the heart of Bucharest, 19-20 May, at I T.A.K.E Unconference! For 2 days, around 30 speakers will share insights, latest trends, and deliver hands-on sessions.

In Meet the Speakers Part I and Part II, we shared more about the first 10 speakers who will make this year event a one not to be missed. Below, you can read more about the next 5:

 

august-512x512_originalYegor Buhayenko, CTO at Teamed.io, USA

Talk To Your Microservice Via a Chat Bot, not UI (Talk)

It seems that chat bots are a more effective way of interaction between web (micro-)services and users than traditional HTML user interfaces.

 

 

 

 

34da781_originalAlexandru Badiu, Development Lead at Corbis, Romania

Maintaining a Node.JS OSS package (Live coding)

How to setup a development pipeline for your Node.JS project.

 

 

 

 

hugoimage_originalHugo Meeser, Owner at Bridge Global, Netherlands

How to successfully manage remote teams (Workshop)

Participants will create a best practice board in teams of 5-6 people.

 

 

 

 

igstan_originalIonut G. Stan, Software Developer at Eloquentix, Romania

Let’s Write a Parser! (Live coding) 

One weird trick to write parsers. Compiler engineers will hate you!

 

 

 

 

me_small_originalMilen Dyankov, Senior Consultant at Liferay, Poland

Microservices and Modularity or the difference between treatment and cure! (Live coding)

An attempt to analyze the problems microservices claim to solve and explore other possible solutions!

 

 

 

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!

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)

 

 

 

ITAKE_2017

 

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

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

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