Heart of Agile Pittsburgh 2017
02 May 2017 . talks . Comments #talks #pair programming #tdd
I was honored to be asked to speak at the Heart of Agile Pittsburgh 2017 on April 27 & 28.
What is the Heart of Agile?
The Heart of Agile comes from agile manifesto author, Alistair Cockburn. As he encouraged people and teams to get back to the heart of agile, he found himself emphasizing four things
- Collaborate
- Deliver
- Reflect
- Improve
I recommend learning about the Heart of Agile. Especially, if you feel like I do, that agile implementations frequently end up becoming exactly what the agile movement was trying to prevent.
Talk
My talk on Thursday morning was based on a blog post I wrote two years ago about Ping Pong Pair Programming, which can be found here. The talk, The Ultimate Developer Collaboration Technique: Ping Pong Pair Programming, describes issues with traditional pair programming, how Ping Pong Pair Programming addresses those issues, and a demo of Ping Pong Pair Programming. I am grateful that my longtime colleague and friend Nick Goede could join me for the talk and demonstration.
Here are the slides from the talk, replacing the embedded coding videos with links to youtube videos.
Conference
Hats off to Rob Lingle and James Gifford for all their hard work organizing the conference. There is an incredible amount of work and preparation required to organize such an event. There were some very unique aspects to the conference, starting with the location. It was held on a series of docked riverboats called the Gateway Clipper Fleet. During the first evening’s networking & cocktail reception, one of the riverboats set sail on the Three Rivers. Another unique aspect of the conference was a real-time retrospective (thanks to ScatterSpoke).
I met more wonderful people and got more value out of this conference than many I have attended in the past. I am already looking forward to next year. If you are a software professional working in an agile environment do yourself a favor and put this conference on your list for next year.