Presentation: TweetKicking the complexity habit

Without rigorous care and attention software quickly becomes messy and unmanageable. Even with the best intentions entropy and complexity are a fact of life in growing applications. As in many other contexts it is easier to tackle the symptoms than the cause. Systems Thinking calls this behaviour "Shifting the Burden" and it is more widespread than you might think. From your IDE to your automated build, from DDD’s ACLs to TDD and other TLAs, from backlogs to burn-ups, we are surrounded by props for coping with complexity. As appealing as these are, they also make us less likely to address the underlying problem of complexity itself. Dan believes you can learn to recognise these coping mechanisms for what they are, and intends to set you on the path to simplicating your programming life.

Workshop: Accelerated Agile Tweet

Great software professionals build better software faster. Agile methods, continuous delivery and software craftsmanship helped speed up delivery from years to months or even weeks, but then what?

Some teams are able to deliver software at a speed of change like you have never seen before, delivering quality software in days or even hours, again and again. So what is keeping the rest of us from doing so? Now is the time to go from months to minutes, to rethink the way we organize and improve our software development and delivery process.

Accelerated Agile is for people who believe it can be done. People who feel themselves limited by current Agile, CD and Craftsmanship thinking. People who want to go back to basics and uncover new, simpler ways to deliver great software. Are you a seasoned agile developer who is frustrated at how slow your “hyper-performing” process feels? Are you suffering with an unwieldy feature backlog, the pantomime of estimation, the card wall where cards go to die, the efforts to automate where it obviously isn’t adding anything? Are you fed up with the artificial commitment of sprints and the unwelcome surprises that still seem to derail your projects?

Accelerated Agile brings agile principles into the 21st century. You will learn new techniques that both enhance and replace existing agile practices, some of which are counter-intuitive and many which are completely counter to current “agile” doctrine. Using a mixture of discussion, instruction and exploration you will start to think differently about design, architecture, development and testing, operations, automation and team dynamics, as well as working with legacy systems and integrating with third parties.

What you will learn

How to challenge the received wisdom of established Agile methods
How to design and architect for rapid and sustainable delivery
Why understanding risk and embracing uncertainty are at the heart of faster delivery
How to manage build, release and operations
How systems thinking can help you plan effectively and estimate accurately
How to identify and reduce gaps in your testing strategy
How to engage with legacy systems and integrating with third parties
How to manage different levels of skill and experience within a team
Praise for Accelerated Agile

“one of the best courses I have ever attended, if not the best!”
“really interesting with good discussions and lots of relevant information”
“[not using slides] made the course flow in a neat and agile way”