We are pleased to invite you to the CHOOSE Forum to be held on November 28, 2014 at the University of Bern. This year’s topic is Software Engineering Today.
The full day event will feature four talks and a panel. New this year is that we allow more time for networking and informal exchanges. The speakers are:
The day also features the CHOOSE General Assembly, including reports from the President and the Treasurer.
More details together with the registration form can be found on the official webpage: http://choose.s-i.ch/events/forum2014
Please note that this year, we also organize a satellite course on November 27 with Michael Feathers on Working Effectively with Legacy Code.
During January 19-20 I will give two public courses at ProgramUtvikling (the organizers of the NDC conference) in Oslo on:
The registration forms are available on the above links.
On December 3, I will give a talk on Reflective Thinking at the Scrum Breakfast Zurich.
The abstract goes as follows:
Have you noticed how adopting an Agile process sometimes works and sometimes not? Have you noticed how sometimes nothing changes even though everyone seems to "Inspect and Adapt"?In this talk we try to answer why it so, but laying out a little theory of what we call "reflective thinking". For almost half a century the software engineering community has been working on a theory of reflection, which is defined as "the ability of a system to inspect and adapt itself". We draw parallels with that field and learn several lessons:
- Reflection must be built deep into the organization.
- Reflection always incurs an apparent cost.
- Inspection is easier than adaptation.
- We can only reflect on what is explicit.
- Reflection is a design tool that enables unanticipated evolution.
Reflection is an inherent human ability. Only, it requires explicit training to develop into a capability.
I watched 1800+ TED talks. I watched all those published on ted.com. Why? Because I am a TED addict. And because each of these talks reminds me that storytelling is essential in everything we do.
Facts are important, but facts alone have no value. They have to be consumed to be worthwhile. Stories make this happen by getting us involved. This applies to researching novel ways, it applies to creating products, it applies to leading people, it applies to educating kids, and it applies to marriage proposals. Essentially, it applies to anything worth doing.
Storytelling is what makes stories happen. But, storytelling is a skill, and like any skill, it can be learnt.
For example, an easy way to learn is to listen to good examples. Like TED talks. But, there are many ways to learn. And, there are even more ways to apply.
It only takes us to invest in it. Why?
Because storytelling is essential.