Upcoming Glasgow Events

First up in October is Zen and the Art of Software & How to Manage your Manager:

Zen and the Art of Software

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a book about Quality; what it is, where it exists, and how we may try to attain it. In this talk, I will use passages from the book to introduce ideas on how we, as software developers, might try to improve the Quality both of the software we create and of ourselves. I’ll talk about what “Quality” means in the context of software, how to measure it, and the importance of close interaction with users at all stages of software development.

How to Manage Your Manager

Developers and managers generally don’t understand each other. Developers know the arcane languages of machines and are motivated by inexplicable forces. Managers seem to spend half their time in meetings and the other half emailing each other Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. The result is that both sides end up frustrated, feeling that the other is stopping them from doing their job to the best of their ability.

In this talk, I will share some of the things I’ve learned in 20 years of being managed, including:

• How to get the PC you want, with the two big monitors and a decent CPU.
• Also, how to get extra software, training, and even sent to conferences.
• How to adopt best practices, like TDD, pairing and daily stand-ups even though your manager doesn’t know what they are, and probably doesn’t care.
• How to earn the respect of people who seem to actively like wearing suits.
• Maybe, possibly, how to respect them just a little bit.

Then in November is “The Happy Developer” - Is it a Myth?

“The Happy Developer” - Is it a Myth?

It’s a great time to be a developer right now don’t you think? Even in all of the economic chaos we still have it pretty good so what reason would any of us have to not be happy in our jobs?

The answer, as it turns out, is quite a lot. We have had our rants about poor management choices, the lack of proper code reviews, having to work with outdated/inappropriate technology, processes and methodologies, demands and pressure from those above us and we put up with it because at the end of the day, it pays the bills.

In this session I will explore with you the pitfalls of being a developer in these difficult times and with the help of some case studies and good old-fashioned reasoning, give suggestions on how these frustrations can be addressed.

If you are stressing out over a problem in your job, bring it with you, this is built entirely on experience from developers who have been there.

Audience participation is encouraged and this session is not technology or platform specific.

Click on the links above for more information and to register for each event. All the above events are technology and platform neutral.