Monday, August 27, 2007

Alt.Net Registration...

Is now open -- register here, see who's coming here

The conference is limited to 100 people, so register quickly.

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Last day of Agile 2007

Its been a fun Agile conference this year. I met a lot of people and had plenty of interesting conversations.

I'd like to thank everyone who was at our tutorial on pair programming. You were all great and I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Taylor the Sailor found me after the session and asked the question you were all dying to know... "Do you really know what an NPC is?" Of course I do!

For all of you wanting to know why we were talking about D&D, I'd usually say you'll have to come to our next session. However, I don't think it would be as fun a metaphor without Oksana saying, "I have no idea what she is talking about, but I know it has something to do with video games." It is probably the last (and first) time I use it as an example activity that's best to do with someone else.

Today, Ken and Ilio's presented their experience report on Ript. They did a really great job. It was fun to be in the audience of another team members' session!

I'm really glad the whole team was at the conference. I'm really lucky to work with people I admire and enjoy so much!

With all this great team spirit its hard for something to compare. However, on the first night, they had a balloon guy at the ice breaker and he made me a bicycle! He didn't even call me a hyena for asking :P

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Ript

For the past year, our team at Oxygen has been working on several projects. Most of which are internal, providing tools for the Oh! channel to operate.

One of them, Ript, is something completely different.

Until yesterday, I had to be pretty quiet about the details, but now that I can talk, I'd rather you try it for yourself.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Disney, here I come...

I will be speaking with Oksana at The Agile Development Practices Conference in Orlando this December.

We will have a 1/2 day tutorial on Mock Objects and a session on The Gentle Art of Pair Programming.

Hope to see you there!

Friday, August 3, 2007

A changing community...

I love agile. I've adapted it into my development and never looked back.

If there is agile, why is there ALT.NET?

The development environment of many institutions is molded to the vision of software provided by people with no insight.

Pushing irrelevant solutions and deadlines.

Traveling a rote technology line.

Where does that leave the rest of us?

We go with the flow.

We find a place that embraces agile.

We work to change our environment.

It takes a great deal of energy to foster change in your environment.

It takes time, effort, trust and many other qualities that make going with the flow look better and better as time goes by.

You are not alone.

Your company software policies were not created by your company.

They are the practices of the community.

A community that conforms to business and technology providers' desires and not the interest of creating the best solutions.

What is ALT.NET? It is a community that will not conform to these principles. It is a group that is working together to foster change beyond our individual environments.

What is the ALT.NET Open Space? It is for people who want change. It is for people who want to share. It is for people who want to learn.

Everyone will be someone who wants to do something for the community. They will come with something they know and leave with something to share.