On Sunday Gojko Adzik and I joined forces to run an Open Space session at GOOSgaggle on how we might work using TDD to improve our abilities in software design. Three things (after the break) have suggested to me that this might be important –
At ScanDev 2010 last week, Kent Beck spoke about Software G Forces (slides from an earlier version of this talk are here. Observing that the move in our world is towards more and more frequent releases to users, Kent asked the question — what does this mean for our organisations? (agile in organisations this was the focus of the track - he said he’d tackled the implications for teams and team practices in earlier versions of the talk).
Preparing to write something on Smalltalk, Java, and the activity of design, I’ve been looking for a code formatter/syntax highlighter for the site. Glad to have found Alex Gorbatchev’s Syntax Highlighter, which does the job nicely, except that it’s missing a Smalltalk renderer (brush in the program’s terms). So here is one, which I’ll be tinkering with in the days to come, which does a comfortable if basic job of highlighting. Examples (plus the code of the brush) after the jump…
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Spurred by the discussion of Kata at QCon London, and reminded by a nice tribute to Pablo Casals in the Guardian this weekend, some thoughts on practice in music and software development. To start with, here’s Casals: when asked why, at the age of 93, he still practiced for three hours each day, he replied:
“I’m beginning to notice some improvement.”
Some reflections on two recent agile conferences I attended (and ran sessions at). Both very stimulating, with a great deal of learning going on. Both raising questions for me in several directions.
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Blogging from the Munich Scrum Gathering, so here’s a rare Scrum-focussed blog, though (of course) there’s a lot here that parallels other thinking in the Agile and Lean world. The Scrum Picture is Wrong: well, not wrong, but incomplete. Misleadingly, dangerously incomplete. It’s easier to say it’s just wrong, and this is why.
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As you’ll know if you’re reading here, I’ve become excited by the way theatre Improv can inspire us as agile coaches. One direct result of this is a day-long workshop I’m organising with Mike Sutton through the UK Agile Coaches Gathering, which will be run by Tom Salinsky. We’re working with Tom on structuring the day around ideas and outcomes directly relevant to coaching practice: collaboration, innovation, status and influence. It’s going to be entertaining, fun, inspiring and useful, and it’s a snip at £65.00 for the day. Saturday 21 November, Highgate, London: more details here.
I’m reading - and enjoying - Alfie Kohn’s classic, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A, Praise, and Other Bribes. It’s definitely a one-issue book, but that’s not such a bad thing: what’s more, it’s one of those rare works which is both pleasurably readable and impeccably referenced: three hundred pages of text, a hundred of notes and bibliography, so if you want or need to follow up on the research results which inform every argument Kohn makes, you can. [1]
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The estimable John Nolan, with whom I’m in the habit of swapping book recommendations, waved Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman at me, saying “I’m half-way through the introduction, but it’s already making me think…”. Recommended, duly bought, and now some weeks later somewhat digested. This is a long time for me: not a reflection on the writing, which is conversational, urbane, knowledgeable. The quality of the discourse and the thinking behind it made me realise quickly that this was a book I wanted to spend some time with.
Some years ago, when I was completing a PhD in music theory, a friend observed to me that composers have methods, techniques, processes to help them do things that don’t come naturally or easily to them. This (so to speak) struck a chord, and it’s true in many ways in software development.
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| I'm more excited than I can say about our new venture, Vyclone. I'm CTO, supporting an inspiring pair of founders and working with a great team on an amazing product. Watch this space! |
| In October I'm speaking in Manchester at MiniSpa 2011 (on innovation), in London at BCS SPA (on node.js) and Stockholm as part of Scandev on Tour (on code debt). Come and say hi if you're taking part in any of these. |
| I've been Hanoulled! Brief interviews with yours truly and others here. |