Methods & Tools - News, Facts & Comments Edition - October 2008

*** News *********************************************************

* How Yahoo International is Becoming Agile

I had the chance to assist to the Geneva stage of the Agile Tour, an itinerary French-speaking agile conference. Alexandre Boutin made a very interesting presentation about the transition to agile by Yahoo International (the non-US operations of Yahoo).

http://blog.martinig.ch/?p=162

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* M&T Industry Press Releases Channel

You can view and follow recent press releases from software development tools vendors on http://www.softdevtools.com/modules/news/

*** Numbers ************************************************************

* Unit Testing: Still Widely Informal

This poll examined how organizations perform unit testing. Is it an informal activity that is done before integration if there is some time left after programming or is it the key element of the development effort? The question was: How is unit testing performed at your location?

Proportion	2008	2006
Unit testing is not performed	17%	13%
Unit testing is informal	40%	46%
Unit tests cases are documented	9%	11%
Unit tests cases and their executions are documented	14%	16%
We use a Test Driven Development approach	20%	14%

Participants: 384 (2006:460)

Ending date: October 2008 (February 2006)

Despite the fact that the number of TDD adopters has grown nicely since the previous survey, you can notice that unit testing is still widely conducted in an informal manner, when it is not simply ignored by developers. This could sound weird when many people announced a general adoption of the agile approaches, but the results of our survey are similar to many other polls on the same topic.

Read the complete analysis with references to other unit testing surveys on http://www.methodsandtools.com/dynpoll/oldpoll.php?UnitTest2

*** Jobs Opening on SoftDevJobs.com ******************************

More than 50 jobs from Microsoft, Cisco, RIM or smaller companies are waiting for you on http://www.softdevjobs.com/ in Canada, USA, Europe and India. Posting of jobs is free. If your company is recruiting in the software development field, do not hesitate to use this board.

*** Linkopedia: www.SoftDevLinks.com & www.SoftDevArticles.com ***

WSO2 is an open source software development community for Web services & SOA projects.

http://wso2.org/

Web Page Analyzer is a free web page analysis tool calculates page size, composition, and download time. Gives speed recommendations based on best practices for usability, HCI, and website optimization.

http://websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

We Vouch For... is intended to capture a "network of excellence" in which people vouch for each others' Agile skills.

http://wevouchfor.org/

Twelve emerging best practices for adding UX work to Agile development

http://agileproductdesign.com/blog/emerging_best_agile_ux_practice.html

Scalability Worst Practices

http://www.infoq.com/articles/scalability-worst-practices

10 Useful articles about Database design

http://woork.blogspot.com/2008/09/10-useful-articles-about-database.html

*** Conferences: www.softdevconferences.com **********************

* International Test Certification Weeks (ITCW)

* Las Vegas , NV - November 3-7, 2008

* Denver, CO - November 17-21, 2008

* Dallas, CO - December 8-12, 2008

20 Full day in-depth Software Testing and QA courses taught by Leading Industry Experts in Software Testing & Quality

http://www.iist.org/stpw/

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* Scandinavian Agile Conference, October 29 2008, Helsinki, Finland

Scandinavian Agile '08 Conference (Scan-Agile '08) is organized by Agile Finland, a non-profit organization created by the active agile community in Finland. This is the first instance of this conference and the content includes business-focused as well as practitioner focused presentations and hands on workshops".

http://www.scan-agile.org/

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* QA&TEST: International Conference on Embedded Software Testing,  October 29-31 2008, Bilbao, Spain

QA&TEST diffuses the latest technological developments in Software Testing and Quality Assurance. The conference features successful best practices and cutting-edge solutions. Learn about test management, model-based testing, QA and measurement etc. QA&TEST will bring together professionals and experts from different sectors such as: Railways, Aeronautics, Electronic Devices, Banking or Telecommunications.

http://www.qatest.org

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* Apache Con 2008, November 3-7 2008, New Orleans, USA

ApacheCon is the official user conference of The Apache Software Foundation, featuring in-depth training classes and more than 60 sessions by the creators of open source software such as the Apache httpd webserver, Tomcat, Lucene, Hadoop and more. New this year: BarCamp Apache, Hadoop Camp, and Apache OFBiz Symposium!

http://us.apachecon.com/

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* Agile Development Practices, November 10-14, 2008, Orlando, USA

Whether you're investigating or implementing agile development practices, Agile Development Practices has what you need. Learn the latest in agile methods, technologies, tools, and leadership principles from thought leaders who deliver inspiring keynote presentations, in-depth tutorials, and a wide range of conference classes. For more information visit

http://www.sqe.com/go?ADP08MTad

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* IT Portfolio Management, November 17-19 2008, Orlando, USA

ITPM is the ONLY event to provide an unbiased, cross-industry perspective for portfolio managers looking for the best way to align their projects. With its unique and interactive program, it addresses your key frustrations through roundtable discussion groups, in depth workshops, and real life stories from corporate practitioners in the trenches

http://www.iirusa.com/itpm/

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Eclipse Summit Europe, November 19-20 2008, Ludwigsburg, Germany

The Eclipse Summit is the Foundation's premier event designed to create stimulating and dynamic opportunities for the European Eclipse community to learn, share expertise and discover new opportunities and solutions in the Eclipse ecosystem.

http://eclipsesummit.org

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* XP Days Benelux, 20-21 November 2008, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

The fifth edition of the XP Days Benelux conference will be held in Eindhoven. Two days packed full of agile experience, practical knowledge and sharing. Whatever your level of experience, role or industry, this is the place to be if you want to know what "agile" really is.

http://www.xpday.net

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* Open Source Singapore-Pacific-Asia Conference & Expo 2009, February 16-28 2009, Singapore

The Open Source Singapore-Pacific-Asia Conference & Expo will be the seminal event, where the best and brightest developers, executives, and visionaries will gather to set the future course of Open Source across the region. The conference will include keynote speakers, breakout sessions, an exhibit hall and endless networking opportunities.

http://www.osspac.com

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* ACCU 2009 Spring Conference, 22-25 April 2009, Oxford, UK

The ACCU conference has a tradition of high quality sessions covering many aspects of software development, from programming languages and technologies to development processes, and softer aspects such as team building, communication and leadership.

http://www.accu.org/conference

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* Jazoon'09, June 22-25 2009, Zurich, Switzerland - Call for papers

Submission deadlines
* Technical short talks - 2008-12-31

The latest trends and developments are examined in these 20' presentations.
* Technical long talks - 2008-12-31

The latest trends and developments are examined in these 50' presentations.
* Jazoon Rookie - 2008-12-31

A young developer speaker's competition.
http://jazoon.com/en/contribute/rookies.html

* Jazoon Cutting Edge - 2009-05-15
These 20' talks address the most recent developments in the Java industry.

* Birds-of-a-feather sessions - 2009-06-14
BOF sessions are an ideal form for an open but structured dialogue and exchange of experiences.

http://jazoon.com/

*** M&T News *****************************************************

* Future Issues of Methods & Tools

In future issues, you will find articles on:

• Behavior Driven Database Design
• Optimizing the Contribution of Testing to Project Success
• Service Components and Compositions
• A Gentle Introduction To Software Estimation
• Database Locking
• Architecture Decay
• Code Generation
• Scrum Backlog LifeCycle
• How to Build Articulate UML Class Models
• Open-Source Messaging Servers

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Copyright (C) 2008, Martinig & Associates