“Art of Agile” Events

(Last updated October 4th.)

It's been a long time coming, but The Art of Agile Development is almost on store shelves! We've been working on final proofreading, the cover, the index, and so forth, and we're almost done. Print date is October 12th, it ships on the 26th, and it will be on store shelves by November 3rd.

To celebrate the release of the book, I'm going to be involved with a number of events. I'd love to see you at one!

Would you like me to present at your event? My schedule is nearly full, but I can still participate in online events. I'm also available for events in the Bay Area around December 11th. Email me at jshore@jamesshore.com to set something up.

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Get 35% off when you order direct from O'Reilly. Visit the O'Reilly Store and use offer code JAVAGL when placing your order. (Sorry, US customers only.)

October 16th (evening): Seattle Java User Group

Introducing Agile Development to Your Organization

In this presentation, James will discuss the patterns and trends he's seen in over seven years of helping teams adopt agile methods. Learn about the three basic approaches to agile adoption (whole-hog, structure-first, and technology-first) and their benefits and disadvantages. James will describe what you can do to make agile adoption easier, then open the floor for discussion of the challenges you face in your organizations.

Website and directions here. I'll also be giving away a copy of the book.

October 22nd (evening): Houston Agile Developer Group

Agile Engineering: No Debt, No Defects

Agile methods place high demands on developers: every iteration--as often as every week--the team must deliver working, tested software to their customers. Every iteration, the team may be asked to change direction and work on an entirely new set of requirements. To meet this challenge, agile engineering practices are a must. Join James for a discussion of how Extreme Programming's engineering practices mesh together to allow teams to approach the ideal of software with no defects and no technical debt. Practices discussed include pair programming, ten-minute builds, continuous integration, incremental and evolutionary design, test-driven development, and more.

Website and directions here. I'll be giving away a book but probably won't have copies to sell yet.

October 24th (evening): Portland XP User Group

Testers and Agile Engineering: Bridging the Gap

Extreme Programming provides a great set of agile engineering practices for programmers, but what about testers? How do they fit in? In this presentation, James will share lessons learned from several years of helping testers integrate into agile teams. Learn how to use testers' specialized skills to prevent defects, not just find them. Topics include requirements collaboration with Fit, customer reviews, exploratory testing, and working with developers who are using test-driven development.

Website and directions here. Rumours of XPDX's death have been greatly exaggerated! I'll be giving away a book, signing copies, and I may have copies to sell depending on how quickly they come back from the printer.

October 30th-November 2nd (all day): JavaRanch Forums

Online discussion

I'll be participating in the online JavaRanch "Agile and Other Processes" forum Tuesday through Thursday, answering questions and raisin' a ruckus. On Friday, we'll give away four copies of the book to forum participants.

Forum here.

November 8th (midday): Portland QA Special Interest Group

Roundtable discussion

The Software Association of Oregon has invited me to participate in their roundtable discussion on November 8th. I don't have much information about this yet, but I'll update this page when I do!

Website and directions here. We'll be giving away a copy of the book as a door prize. I'm not sure yet if there will be an opportunity for me to sell or sign copies.

November 8th (evening): Seattle XP User Group

Agile Engineering: No Debt, No Defects

Agile methods place high demands on developers: every iteration--as often as every week--the team must deliver working, tested software to their customers. Every iteration, the team may be asked to change direction and work on an entirely new set of requirements. To meet this challenge, agile engineering practices are a must. Join James for a discussion of how Extreme Programming's engineering practices mesh together to allow teams to approach the ideal of software with no defects and no technical debt. Practices discussed include pair programming, ten-minute builds, continuous integration, incremental and evolutionary design, test-driven development, and more.

Website and directions here. As with the other user group meetings, I'll be giving away a book, signing copies, and will also have copies for sale.

December 3rd-6th: Orlando Agile Development Practices Conference

I'll be joining a great lineup of people, including Diana Larsen, J.B. Rainsberger, Ken Pugh, Linda Rising, Mary & Tom Poppendieck, and Scott Ambler at SQE's Agile Development Practices conference. I have two sessions scheduled:

Wednesday: Maximizing ROI with Agile Release Planning

You're agile . . . great! Now what? What does this mean for the organization's bottom line profits? Actually, it means a lot. You can use your agility to dramatically increase the value of your project to its stakeholders. Join agilist James Shore for an in-depth discussion of when, why, and how to use agile release planning to improve the functional and economic success of your project. Learn how agile release planning can turn a losing project into a winner in mid-stream. James describes five specific ways to use agile release planning to increase ROI on your project—work on one project at a time, release early/release often, learn as you go, plan adaptively, and keep your options open. James explains when to use these techniques and how to avoid the pitfalls of each.

Thursday: That's Not Right! Using Fit to Prevent Business Rule Defects

Sophisticated applications involve huge numbers of detailed domain business rules. These rules are the heart of the application, determining critical details such as how much money is transferred between two banks (in a financial application), which compounds have been identified in a sample (in a chemistry application), or how a customer's money should be refunded (in a point-of-sale application). These details, while crucial, are too easy to get wrong. Sometimes, only the business experts can tell when the software is right or wrong. That's where open source Fit can help you. Fit is an automation tool for helping improve communication between business experts and programmers, allowing you to identify miscommunication and prevent business rule defects before they happen. Join James Shore for an introduction to using Fit in your project.

Conference website and registration here. (Register before Nov 9th for the early bird discount.) The conference will have books for sale and I'm going to try to give away a few copies at my sessions as well.

December 11th: San Francisco BayAPLN

Agile Planning in Action

This popular and novel workshop introduces participants to agile planning by allowing them to plan their own tutorial. Participants learn the basics of agile planning, then use those lessons to create a tutorial covering the agile topics they're most interested in. When they're done, James will deliver the tutorial on the spot! This is a great session that exposes participants to the benefits and challenges of real agile planning. Plus, participants get a second tutorial on the subjects they care about most.

Website and directions here. I'll be giving away a book, signing copies, and will also have copies for sale.

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