Software Faster Workshop

This workshop showed me a whole new world of software development practices, it’s one step forward the usual Agile practices.
Pietro Campagnano – Agile Web Developer at Ideato

If you do software for real and you feel you could do it better, start with “Software Faster”. Do doubt. Let Dan guide you into a different way of looking at things.
Silvano Stralla – Lead Developer at LaFourchette (TheFork)

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.

About the workshop

Software Faster brings software delivery 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 of which are completely counter to current “best practise”.
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.

Target audience

Software Faster is for people who believe it can be done, people who feel themselves limited by current Agile dogma, people who want to go back to basics and uncover new, simpler ways to deliver great software.
Are you a seasoned software 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?

What will you learn in this course

• 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

Workshop Topics

Software Faster looks at advanced techniques and patterns for effective software delivery, for teams who have outgrown “mainstream agile” methods like Scrum and are looking for something deeper.

The class covers a handful of core patterns and then takes an attendee-led selection from a number of topics:

• Architecture and Design
• Development Practices
• Planning and Estimation
• Deployment and Operations
• Team Dynamics
• Testing
• Analysis and Discovery
• Working with Legacy Systems
• Complexity and Systems Thinking

Expect to get your hands dirty

The Software Faster material contains over 40 patterns and techniques, and we’ll cover around 8-10 of these across several topic areas, so there are literally millions of combinations of class.

We use a method called *Training from the Back of the Room*, where people work in small groups and teach each another.
There are no prepared slides, Dan will draw the content by hand as the course progresses, and builds up a page of further resources and references.
These slides and notes will be circulated as a PDF at the end of the class, because they are different every time, tailored specifically to the group.

Additional Resources

Read our interview with Dan “Second-Generation Agile Methodology: Dan North’s BDD Tales“!

N.B.

The workshop is subject to the confirmation of a minimum number of registered attendees. We’ll be sending a confirmation email to all registered attendees no later than one month prior to the workshop start date.

Two coffee breaks and lunch with the trainer and the other attendees are also included in this ticket… because networking matters. :)

Questions? Drop us a line: [email protected]