For details of times and location see the Home page Follow up information for past meetings is here. |
posted 14 Feb 2012 05:05 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 14 Feb 2012 06:08
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Details to be confirmed but we will be running an exercise to illustrate the concepts behind Kanban along with a facilitated discussion suggested to the group by Paul Hollingworth |
posted 14 Feb 2012 04:58 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 14 Feb 2012 06:07
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Tonight we will be reflecting in the pub on how the group did in 2011 and what we can do going forward. |
posted 6 Jan 2012 00:29 by Robert Burrell Donkin
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updated 6 Jan 2012 00:35
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Our first Agile Yorkshire of 2012 focusses on Extreme Programming (XP). Thanks, yet again, to NTI Leeds for lending us the space at Old Broadcasting House, Leeds. Timeboxes 18:30 Networking And Lightning Talks - starting with XP in 10 Slides 19:00 Kick Start Briefing 19:30 Extreme Hour: GO! 20:30 Retrospective 21:00 Discussions@thepub Kent Beck published Extreme Programming Explained over a decade ago but - reading the book again - it still seems fresh. Extreme Programming (XP) is an incremental agile method, lighter than Scrum or DSDM and with less ceremony, most useful for teams towards the smaller end of the spectrum. In 2009, Capers Jones found XP to be one of the key factors for success for projects in the 1000 Function Point scale (with Agile and contemporary high-level languages). Time to take a look again at XP, and dissect why - and when - it works. For January 2012, Agile Yorkshire features an Extreme Hour: a one hour process miniature. In this hands-on exercise, small teams will use XP to develop paper prototypes for a mystery product. No coding experience need, just a steady hand with pen and scissors. An introduction to XP will be provided. The evening will end with discussion reflecting on our experiences. Something for everyone and all welcome. Hosted by Grant Crofton and Robert Burrell Donkin.
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posted 20 Nov 2011 16:15 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 20 Nov 2011 16:18
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Arbitrary targets, paired performance comparisons (this month - last month - same month last year), league tables, ‘trends’, KPI traffic lights.... the list of tools for numerical naivety is almost endless. The purpose of analysis is insight but most people don’t know how to recognise the insight they are looking for.
If you want to find out why Paul Hollingworth claims that most management information is worse than useless - and what you can do about it, then come the the Agile Yorkshire meeting on 13th December. This will be a rare opportunity to experience Dr W Edwards Deming’s famous ‘Experiment with Red Beads’, with someone who first did this experiment with Dr Deming over 20 years ago and has run it many times since then.
You may also be surprised to learn the correct answer to the question 2 + 2 = ?
Follow Paul on Twitter @HollingworthP |
posted 5 Nov 2011 18:08 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 5 Nov 2011 18:09
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18:30-19:00 Starters - Networking And Lightning Talks:Introductions to Timeboxing and Pomodoro19:00-21:00 Main Course Functional Programming & Scala or Agile Time21:00 onwards Drinks@PubFor November 2011, Agile Yorkshire presents concurrent technical andconceptual streams. Before this choice of main course from 19:00,choose a starter from classic networking or introductory talks. Pleasecome along, sample and tell us what you think of this tastyexperiment!As always, thanks to Old Broadcasting House[1], Leeds for letting ususe their great space.The Menu----------- Lightning Talks (Robert Burrell Donkin[2]) Introduction to Timeboxing[3]: a key Agile technique, from the ground up Introduction to The Pomodoro Technique[4]: a deceptively simple(and Agile) way of improving personal focus and concentration (builton timeboxing)Main Course-------------Technical Stream: Functional Programming & Scala (Aaron Pritzlaff)-------------------------------------------------------------------------There has been a noticeable shift recently towards functionalprogramming. But what is functional programming, and what does it meanfor us? Is it a code style, paradigm shift, or just a popularbuzz-word?Aaron Pritzlaff has been writing object-oriented code since the mid90s in C++, Java and .NET. He’s taken an interest in the rise ofalternative JVM languages these past few years, Scala in particular.Though he’s no expert, he has written several projects in Scala, andis now a keen advocate of it as the next big language.At November’s Agile Yorkshire meet-up, Aaron will give a briefintroduction into functional programming: what it is, why it is aviable alternative to object-oriented and imperative programming, andhow it can be used to write simpler, decoupled and more testablesoftware. Following this there will be a brief introduction to theScala programming language, and why it is in fact the bees knees.Conceptual Stream: Agile Time (moderated by Robert Burrell Donkin)-------------------------------------------------------------------------Bring along and share your questions and opinions for a Park BenchPanel[5] on the topic of time. Conversation on the bench wanderswonderfully but we'll start where the lightning talks finished. ThePomodoro Technique is a deceptively simple - but subtle - way ofimproving personal focus and concentration. Pomodoro shares much withAgile: timeboxing, iterative improvement and empiricism but is backedby psychological and biology mind science. What can Agile developerslearn from Pomodoro?[1] http://www.oldbroadcastinghouse.com/[2] http://robertburrelldonkin.name[3] http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2004/10/timeboxing/[4] http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/ |
posted 5 Oct 2011 15:31 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 5 Oct 2011 15:33
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For next weeks meetup we'll be doing a hands on session looking at techniques for working with legacy code.
The workshop will require us to have enough laptops for everyone to pair and a development IDE such as Visual Studio or Eclipse - so if you have a laptop then bring it along. The material will be language agnostic but with my background in static typed languages I would be interested to see how the exercises work in a dynamic language. The exercises won't tax the knowledge of the syntax of the language you choose to use so don't be put off if your coding is a little rusty :)
Also, I'm aware that we have lurched towards the developer end of the spectrum for the last couple of meetings and in a few conversations with members of the QA/PM community they have expressed concern at this. There is some initial interest in running a parallel session to discuss agile processes and documentation in a highly regulated environment. Keep an eye on the mailing list to see how this evolves .
We have plenty of space at Old Broadcasting House and could easily run parallel sessions if anyone wanted to do something around other areas of agile software development. Feel free to kick off an idea - even if it is just a discussion you want to have. I think it would be great if we could be a forum for various disciplines to come together but not to be reduced to talking just about the common denominators of agile.
Please post any thoughts to the mailing list?
Cheers
Neil |
posted 2 Aug 2011 02:53 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 3 Aug 2011 10:35
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The plan so far from Grant and Craig ...
6:30 Lightning talk - Intro to TDD 6:45 Intro to Katas in general (inc. pair programming) and description of tonight's problem 7:00 Kata 7:45 Retrospective 8:00 Same Kata, different pair 8:45 Retrospective 9:00 Pub!
For some background check out this blog post: Since we are using the "Glaswegian" model (cf: blog post above) we will need at least one laptop per pair so people will need to bring laptops with an IDE which supports testing installed. Feel free to code in the language of your choice but we may struggle to offer "expert assistance" for some languages!
Let me (neil.mclaughlin@agileyorkshire.org) know if any of these points cause you a problem and we will try to find a solution.
More details to follow in the next few days. |
posted 5 Jul 2011 15:24 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 5 Jul 2011 15:40
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An evening of lightning talks.
Topics so far include: - QUnit: the XUnit testing framework for JavaScript (Craig Norton)
- Raphaël: the JavaScript library for working with vector graphics (Mark Harrop)
- Bringing legacy code under control guided by Mr Feathers (Neil McLaughlin)
If you'd like a slot then drop an email to admin@agileyorkshire.org.
The talks can be as informal and as long as you would like and are a great opportunity to present in front of a friendly audience. |
posted 24 May 2011 07:43 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 7 Jun 2011 03:23
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posted 9 May 2011 01:05 by Neil McLaughlin
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updated 9 May 2011 01:06
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We will be running the meeting using an open spaces format (see here for a nice description of the format).
The theme for the evening is "Agile Practices" with a sub theme of "Experiences and Blockers". The aim is to explore what practices are being used and, if not being used, the reasons why not. This should be a good opportunity to bring together more experienced practitioners and newcomers.
Open spaces are an excellent opportunity to participate in (or observe) a structured conversation about issues which are directly affecting you.
The meeting is at the usual time and location and pizza will be provided. |
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