Skills for the Agile Software Developer

This ninety-minute free webinar (with an optional thirty minutes at the end for Q&A) is a dynamic lecture for software developers and non-developers. We make the business case for Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) by examining the differences between waterfall and iterative development. We show how Scrum and XP development practices address the challenges inherent in building software.

We look at why the success rate in software development is so much lower than in other industries and how traditional waterfall development may work for civil engineering but not for software engineering, which is more about inventing than constructing. We then look at how Scrum addresses the core issues of software development by helping us “build the right thing” and “build the thing right.”

We examine key developer practices, including Continuous Integration, Pair Programming, Coding Standards, Test Driven Development, and Refactoring. We look at what these practices are, how they are often misused, and how they can solve many fundamental problems in software development when applied correctly.

Scrum software development combines principles and practices proven more effective than traditional waterfall development for most projects. Many software developers can be reluctant to adopt any methodology because it can be superseded by a different one the following year. Scrum and XP have proven their worth and will be around for many years.

Benefits

At the end of this session, you will know the following:

  • How Scrum development differs from waterfall development.
  • The track record of the software development industry.
  • Why the “quality tradeoff” doesn’t apply to building software.
  • The different skills needed to do Scrum development effectively.
  • Key developer practices and how they are not what they seem.
  • Overview of CI, pair programming, TDD, and refactoring.
  • The developer challenge: turning development practices into practice.

Who Should Attend

This training is for all team members and will benefit architects, designers and developers; development and product managers; software engineers/programmers; testers and QA engineers; and technical analysts, leads, and writers. Familiarity with basic Object-Oriented (OO) concepts and terminology is recommended.

Your Instructor, David Bernstein

David BernsteinMy continuing passion for software design and construction has led me to train more than 10,000 developers since 1990 for clients including Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, Boeing, AT&T, Sprint, Medtronic, SunGard, State Farm, MetLife, and Weyerhaeuser. As a longtime IBM consultant, I trained software engineers around the globe, giving them the skills to write the next generation of applications and operating system software while earning one of the highest satisfaction ratings in the history of IBM education. Since 2006, I’ve devoted my consulting practice to providing organizations with training and coaching for software developers and teams transitioning to Agile and Scrum.

See the Training Schedule for upcoming classes and webinars, or contact me for onsite training at your organization.

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