pages tagged talkYareev's schmonz.comhttps://schmonz.com/tag/talk/Yareev's schmonz.comikiwiki2021-11-25T09:54:33ZCode PaLOUsa 2021: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Codinghttps://schmonz.com/2021/08/20/codepalousa-2021-two-midwesterners/Amitai Schleier2021-08-20T16:25:13Z2021-08-20T16:06:13Z
<p>On Friday, August 20,
<a href="https://twitter.com/AgileFaye">Faye Thompson</a>
and I once again co-facilitated
<a href="http://codepalousa.com/Sessions/1968">Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding</a>,
this time as a 3-hour workshop at
<a href="http://codepalousa.com">Code PaLOUsa 2021</a>.
The abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>Wonder what it’s like to do what programmers do?
Maybe people have tried to explain it, but didn’t put it in terms that computed for you.
Or maybe you would like to become more technical, but the mere thought of trying to code has felt intimidating.
Today is a new day!</p>
<p>Faye’s a non-programmer from Ohio, Amitai’s a sometimes-programmer from Illinois, and with your help, we’ll solve a problem by thinking and coding together.
If you want to, you can take a brief turn at the keyboard; if not, no biggie.
When we’re done, we think you’ll have a new kind of feeling about code and coding.
You might even want to pursue it further.</p></blockquote>
<p>We didn’t have much audience participation, possibly because our session had to be rescheduled from Wednesday (against other half-day workshops, but I was traveling to Germany that day) to Friday (against regular-length talks).
On the plus side, Faye and I got to spend a few hours together pair programming, culminating in a last-minute pivot to “FizzBuzzBlerg”.
And though we don’t usually record this material, the conference has been capturing every session.
I’ll share the video if and when they publish.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2021/08/20/codepalousa-2021-two-midwesterners/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
Legacy of SoCraTes: Inside-Out TDDDDhttps://schmonz.com/2021/06/17/legacy-of-socrates/Amitai Schleier2021-11-25T09:54:33Z2021-06-17T15:00:00Z
<p>On Thursday, June 17,
for the
<a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/e/the-legacy-of-socrates-5">6th edition of “Legacy of SoCraTes”</a>,
I gave a public talk with this abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>In inside-out TDD, we incrementally redesign objects, their interactions, and the system as a whole, starting in the small and moving toward the large.
In something we might by extension want to call “Inside-Out TDD-Driven Development”, we incrementally redesign ourselves, our interactions, and our systems of work, starting in the small and expanding outward.
I’ll tell some personal stories about the impact of software craft on emotional states and working relationships, and I’ll lay out my reasoning for Inside-Out TDDDD being perhaps the most effective path toward greater joy and humanity in software development.</p></blockquote>
<p>The talk is about technical practices, sort of — in the sense that we can use them to improve our emotional states, working relationships, and business results.</p>
<p>Listener feedback has included:</p>
<blockquote><p>”I loved it.
It was fantastic.
My heart contains more praise than I know how to put into words.”</p></blockquote>
<!-- This was M. Scott Ford, who also led with "Your presentation fucking rocked!", in a DM on the Legacy Code Rocks Slack -->
<blockquote><p>”Only a quarter of the way in and I’m loving this talk.
Lots of notes taken and quotes stolen already….
Your perspective adds a whole ‘nother layer of richness that I never realized until now was there.”</p></blockquote>
<!-- [Junilu Lacar on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6811799026388766720?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A6811799026388766720%2C6811817428620722176%29&replyUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A6811799026388766720%2C6811822936576557056%29) -->
<blockquote><p>”Stories that teach in so many dimensions!”</p></blockquote>
<!-- http://twitter.com/ruthmalan/status/1407151185442885637 -->
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2021/06/17/legacy-of-socrates/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Video:</p>
<div class="video-container">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/EZUf6hDipQk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
AO.com Webinar March 2021: Inside-Out TDDDDhttps://schmonz.com/2021/03/19/ao-webinar/Amitai Schleier2021-11-25T09:54:33Z2021-03-19T08:14:16Z
<p>On Friday, March 19,
at the invitation of
<a href="https://tech.ao.com/event/amitai-schleier/">AO.com</a>,
I gave a public talk about joy and humanity in software development.
The talk was primarily concerned with the effects of software craft on our emotional states and working relationships.
Along the way, I touched on
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory%20of%20Constraints">Theory of Constraints</a>,
<a href="https://youtu.be/4rG9u478X1Q">stable and unstable equilibria</a>
in work environments,
a significant and deliberate omission from Scrum,
<a href="https://www.legacycode.rocks/podcast-1/episode/27c69746/defining-legacy-code-with-amitai-schleier">my take on “legacy code”</a>,
applied empathy (never mentioned explicitly, merely woven in),
and what agility looks and feels like when you’ve got it.</p>
<p>The talk’s title is admittedly a bit opaque.
<a href="https://8thlight.com/blog/georgina-mcfadyen/2016/06/27/inside-out-tdd-vs-outside-in.html">Inside-Out TDD</a>
is the style of Test-Driven Development I usually prefer:
we incrementally design objects and their interactions starting with the small and moving toward the large.
By extension, I’m calling the style of incrementally redesigning ourselves and our work interactions by starting in the small and expanding outward “Inside-Out TDD-Driven Development” — where “development” this time refers not only to code, but also to people and systems.
I usually prefer this style of development, too.
The talk (35 minutes, followed by Q&A) attempts to set out my reasoning.</p>
<p>For AO, this kicked off a new series in which they’re hosting well-known tech speakers, free and open to the public.
I hope I’ve gotten them off on the right foot.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2021/03/19/ao-webinar/slides/">Slides</a></li>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2021/03/19/ao-webinar/20210319-inside-out-tdddd.mp4">Video</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="video-container">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/HqjrvJbuf3g" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
OOP Konferenz 2021: Strangle Your Legacy Codehttps://schmonz.com/2021/02/08/oop-konferenz-2021-strangle-your-legacy-code/Amitai Schleier2021-02-08T20:23:09Z2021-02-08T17:30:00Z
<p>On February 8,
I facilitated
<a href="https://www.oop-konferenz.de/oop2021/programm/konferenzprogramm.html#item-2165">Strangle Your Legacy Code</a>
at
<a href="https://www.oop-konferenz.de/oop2021/english.html">OOP Konferenz</a>.
The abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>Given an ancient codebase that makes refactoring risky and expensive, how do you clear a path to continued delivery?
The old wisdom says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The next best time to preserve your software investment is today:
plant a Strangler Fig, a pattern for reaping continuous value from your existing system while growing new functionality alongside it.</p>
<p>We’ll test-drive new features into a real legacy system.
You’ll leave with a powerful strategy for extending the useful life of working, valuable software.</p></blockquote>
<p>The conference Zoom session didn’t let me give keyboard control, so I was the permanent Driver (and, as is common with this exercise, also frequently the Navigator).
Even so, the participants quickly saw the costs and risks of our particular Strangler Fig implementation, leading to a lively discussion about how this pattern might fit into other codebases and what to watch out for when implementing it.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2021/02/08/oop-konferenz-2021-strangle-your-legacy-code/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
<p>A wise three-year-old recently told me, “Sometimes it bes like that; sometimes it’s similar.”
When we were making plans to move to Germany, OOP was one of the conferences I’d been most excited about being able to attend.
Attending online was probably similar.
OOP remains high on my list for when we can once again confer in person.</p>
Agile Arizona 2020: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Codinghttps://schmonz.com/2020/11/13/agile-arizona-2020-two-midwesterners/Amitai Schleier2020-11-14T10:11:10Z2020-11-13T18:00:00Z
<p>On Friday, November 13,
<a href="https://twitter.com/AgileFaye">Faye Thompson</a>
and I once again co-facilitated
<a href="https://agilearizona.org/speakers.html#sn-amitai-schleier">Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding</a>
at
<a href="https://agilearizona.org/">Agile Arizona</a>
(rebranded “Agile Arisofa” for our remote-only era). The abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>Wonder what it’s like to do what programmers do?
Maybe people have tried to explain it, but didn’t put it in terms that computed for you.
Or maybe you would like to become more technical, but the mere thought of trying to code has felt intimidating.
Today is a new day!</p>
<p>Faye’s a non-programmer from Ohio, Amitai’s a sometimes-programmer from Illinois, and with your help, we’ll solve a problem by thinking and coding together.
If you want to, you can take a brief turn at the keyboard; if not, no biggie.
When we’re done, we think you’ll have a new kind of feeling about code and coding.
You might even want to pursue it further.</p></blockquote>
<p>Fitting this into 60 minutes was a bit squeezy, so we made two tradeoffs:</p>
<ol>
<li>Instead of finishing the test-driven story, get just enough examples to show the process</li>
<li>Instead of giving navigators the full navigating experience, do lots of navigating myself to get us somewhere interesting enough by the end</li>
</ol>
<p>This seems to have worked out, by our own lights and by those of our participants, several of whom stuck around after the bell to ask Faye more questions about TDD and mobbing.
I’d have liked to be available afterward too, but a kid needed my help navigating bedtime.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2020/11/13/agile-arizona-2020-two-midwesterners/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
Mini-SPA 2020: Strangle Your Legacy Codehttps://schmonz.com/2020/02/21/minispa-2020-strangle-your-legacy-code/Amitai Schleier2021-11-25T09:54:33Z2020-02-21T15:59:11Z
<p>On Friday, February 21,
I presented
“Strangle Your Legacy Code”
at
<a href="https://www.bcs.org/events/2020/february/mini-spa-conference-2020-leeds/">Mini-SPA</a>,
a one-day event in Leeds, UK.
I wasn’t in Leeds, but my talk was.
The abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>Given an ancient codebase that makes refactoring risky and expensive, how do you clear a path to continued delivery?
The old wisdom says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is today.
But if you already have a gnarled old source tree, preserve your software investment by planting a Strangler:
a pattern for reaping continuous value from your existing system while growing new functionality alongside it.
We’ll define our terms, meet some legacy code and its Strangler (both open source), then test-drive new features into the system.
You’ll leave with a powerful strategy for extending the useful life of working, valuable software — especially when it’s hard to change.</p></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2020/02/21/minispa-2020-strangle-your-legacy-code/slides/">Slides</a></li>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2020/02/21/minispa-2020-strangle-your-legacy-code/20200221-strangle-your-legacy-code.mp4">Video</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="video-container">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FmH8kIJosIU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<p>Two questions came in at the end:</p>
<ol>
<li>What architecture do I suppose is most often Strangled?
My best guess is web applications, both because there are so many of them and because web proxying is well understood.</li>
<li>How did I intercept network calls to the SMTP service?
qmail’s SMTP daemon has no network code in it, relying on <code>inetd</code> or <code>tcpserver</code> to map client-connected sockets to stdio.
That’s why I could type into it interactively simply by running it from the command line.</li>
</ol>
<p>”Strangle Your Legacy Code” is usually
<a href="https://deejaygraham.github.io/2018/08/15/strangling-legacy-code/">an interactive workshop</a>,
one of many I’m happy to offer your team.</p>
NYCBUG: What is notqmail?https://schmonz.com/2020/01/08/nycbug-what-is-notqmail/Amitai Schleier2020-02-13T00:48:55Z2020-01-08T20:40:14Z
<p>On Wednesday, January 8,
I attended the
<a href="https://www.nycbug.org">New York City BSD User Group</a>
to present
<a href="https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10675">What is notqmail?</a>,
a perhaps not entirely surprising followup to my
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2019/03/06/nycbug-maintaining-qmail-in-2019/">March talk</a>.
At the time, I’d been trying to avoid creating yet another qmail fork.
This talk is about my failure — notqmail is alive and well — and about our success thus far.</p>
<p>Abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>We all use email, so we all use email servers.
notqmail is software for running an
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent">email server</a>.
Someday, if we do a good job, some of the many
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/how-to-run-your-own-e-mail-server-with-your-own-domain-part-1/">articles about how and why to run your own</a>
will recommend notqmail.</p>
<p><a href="http://notqmail.org">notqmail</a>
is a community-driven fork of
<a href="https://cr.yp.to/qmail.html">qmail</a>,
beginning where
<a href="http://netqmail.org">netqmail</a>
left off: providing stable, compatible, small releases to which existing qmail users can safely update.
notqmail also aims higher: developing an extensible, easily packaged, and increasingly useful modern mail server.</p></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2020/01/08/nycbug-what-is-notqmail/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Work with me</h2>
<p>Would you personally benefit from an individualized session with an experienced, inquisitive, and empathetic conversation partner?
Maybe you’re facing a challenging situation at work, a learning opportunity in some code — or both.
Last week a new client went from “frustrated” to “energized” in the span of an hour.
Get in touch: <a href="https://latentagility.com">latentagility.com</a></p>
<p>Would your org benefit from a rare combination of technical coaching and impactful conversations?
(Take
<a href="https://latentagility.com/testimonials">other people’s word for it</a>,
not mine.)
It’s not too late to book some time with me in 2020.
Let’s talk about
<a href="https://latentagility.com">what fits for you</a>.</p>
Manhattan November 2019: Global Day of Coderetreathttps://schmonz.com/2019/11/19/manhattan-november-2019-global-day-of-coderetreat/Amitai Schleier2019-11-19T20:49:32Z2019-11-19T20:47:05Z
<p><img src="https://schmonz.com/2019/11/19/IMG_8841.jpg" width="480" height="360" alt="Manny leading a discussion" class="img" /></p>
<p>On Saturday, November 16,
I was going to have
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2018/11/18/brooklyn-november-2018-global-day-of-coderetreat/">once again co-facilitated the New York City instance</a>
of
<a href="https://www.coderetreat.org">Global Day of Coderetreat</a>.
I wound up not doing much of that, because
<a href="http://emmanuelgenard.com">Emmanuel Genard</a>
from
<a href="https://www.stridenyc.com">Stride Consulting</a>
had it well in hand
and because the situation at home required all available parents.
(Taavi, having progressed from crib to anarchy while I’d been off at a client, has since progressed to getting the hang of a new bedtime routine.
Phew.)
My chief contributions in a mere 90 minutes at the
<a href="https://www.appacademy.io/">App Academy</a>
office in Midtown:</p>
<ol>
<li>Talked to GDCR participants in Nuremberg, where I’d
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2018/07/13/coding-tour-stop-1-mathema-redheads/">made</a>
some
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2018/08/31/coding-tour-stop-4-codecentric/">friends</a>
on my
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2018/04/23/coding-tour/">Coding Tour last summer</a></li>
<li>Talked to Edinburgh
(<a href="https://schmonz.com/2018/08/17/coding-tour-stop-3-canon-medical-research/">same</a>)</li>
<li>Failed to talk to Montreal due to technical difficulties</li>
<li>Distracted Manny and at least some of the participants</li>
<li>Took a picture of them</li>
</ol>
<p>I know, I’m impressed too.</p>
<p>But seriously, thank you to my friends at Stride for organizing, sponsoring, and facilitating, and to App Academy for sharing their space with us.</p>
<p>If you’re energized by coming home from Global Day of Coderetreat with several new points of view on a seemingly small problem, you might be the kind of person who’d enjoy a Coding Tour.
I’d be more than happy to chat about what it’s like to go on tour and how you can make it happen for yourself.</p>
<h2>More</h2>
<p>Could this format for learning help your team?
Code Retreat (or
<a href="https://legacycoderetreat.typepad.com/blog/">Legacy Code Retreat</a>)
is one of the ways your organization can benefit from my rare combination of technical coaching and impactful conversations.
(Take
<a href="https://latentagility.com/testimonials">other people’s word for it</a>,
not mine.)
It’s not too late to book me for 2020.
Let’s talk about
<a href="https://latentagility.com">what fits for you</a>.</p>
<p>If that’s not your decision to make, could you personally benefit from an individualized session with an experienced, inquisitive, and empathetic conversation partner?
Maybe you’re facing a challenging situation at work, a learning opportunity in some code — or both.
Get in touch: <a href="https://latentagility.com">latentagility.com</a></p>
NYC Large Scale Scrum May 2019https://schmonz.com/2019/05/16/nyc-large-scale-scrum-may-2019/Amitai Schleier2019-07-24T18:13:27Z2019-05-17T14:55:31Z
<p>On Thursday, May 16,
<a href="https://www.meetup.com/Large-Scale-Scrum-LeSS-in-NYC/">NYC Large Scale Scrum</a>
hosted a
<a href="https://www.meetup.com/Large-Scale-Scrum-LeSS-in-NYC/events/259549884/">meetup with LeSS co-creator Craig Larman</a>.
The event was held at Morgan Stanley
— where I learned
<a href="http://www.extremeprogramming.org">Extreme Programming</a>
and got my first taste of
<a href="https://latentagility.com">software development coaching</a> —
so it was a pleasure to be back in a speaking capacity.
I served as Craig’s opening act, keeping folks warmed up and tuned in with a mix of presentation and discussion until he arrived.</p>
<p>The discussion portion was stoked by
<a href="https://agilein3minut.es/">Agile in 3 Minutes</a>,
specifically
<a href="https://agilein3minut.es/1">Effect</a>
and
<a href="https://agilein3minut.es/5">Wrong</a>.
One of my favorite things to hear about the podcast is when it helps conversations get going, so one of my favorite things about sharing the material in person is watching that happen.
I can still hear the roar of
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2016/04/12/agileindy-2016-agilein3minutes-shoestring-agility/">450 people talking first thing in the morning as I opened AgileIndy 2016</a>.</p>
<table class="img"><caption>Photo by Gene Gendel</caption><tr><td><img src="https://schmonz.com/2019/05/16/20190516_182705.jpg" width="400" height="259" alt="Storytelling" title="Storytelling" class="img" /></td></tr></table>
<p>The presentation portion was me telling stories of growing my Morgan Stanley team’s circles of trust, collaboration, feedback, and impact by improving our technical capabilities in our code.
By a show of hands in the room, about half the audience had worked for Morgan Stanley or still does, and least half of those were familiar with the system I had been responsible for.
I didn’t know how much time I’d have, so I ordered the stories chronologically and worked my way through two of them — just enough to establish
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2015/08/12/tdd-saved-my-brain/">Test-Driven Development</a>
as a keystone of our team’s development, and tee up technical excellence as a keystone of the LeSS framework.
(To find out how our development continued,
<a href="https://schmonz.com/tag/tdd-in-context/">read the stories</a>.)</p>
<p>When I handed off the show to Craig, he took a seat up front between the two flipcharts, fielded questions, and held the room for an hour and a half with his expertise and manner.
It was my first time hearing him speak, and memorable from the outset.
He said things that are often hard to hear in a way that I’m guessing may have been relatively easy for this audience to hear.
It was occasion to reflect on how my consulting skills have grown since my time at Morgan Stanley and how I might grow them further.
And then it was occasion to go out for tacos with John, with whom I’d spent
<a href="https://agilein3minut.es/25">many a Friday night</a>
delivering new code to production.
Looking forward to seeing more of my former colleagues soon.</p>
Big Apple Scrum Day 2019: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Codinghttps://schmonz.com/2019/05/10/big-apple-scrum-day-2019-two-midwesterners/Amitai Schleier2019-05-17T15:01:15Z2019-05-10T22:16:59Z
<p>On Friday, May 10,
I attended
<a href="http://www.bigapplescrumday.org">Big Apple Scrum Day</a>,
was part of its
<a href="https://www.bigapplescrumday.org/coaches-clinic">Coaches Clinic</a>,
and co-facilitated a session called
<a href="https://www.bigapplescrumday.org/speakers">Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding</a>
with
<a href="https://twitter.com/AgileFaye">Faye Thompson</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://schmonz.com/2019/05/10/IMG_7201.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="Faye debriefing after some code" title="Faye debriefing after some code" class="img" /></p>
<p>Here’s the abstract:</p>
<blockquote><p>Wonder what it’s like to do what programmers do?
Maybe people have tried to explain it, but didn’t put it in terms that computed for you.
Perhaps you’ve considered participating in your team’s mobbing sessions but weren’t confident that you could contribute.
Or maybe you would like to become more technical, but the mere thought of trying to code has felt intimidating.
Today is a new day!</p>
<p>Faye’s a non-programmer from Ohio, Amitai’s a sometimes-programmer from Illinois, and with your help, we’ll solve a problem by thinking and coding together.
If you want to, you can take a brief turn at the keyboard; if not, no biggie.
When we’re done, we think you’ll have a new kind of feeling about code and coding.
You might even want to pursue it further.</p></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://schmonz.com/2019/05/10/big-apple-scrum-day-2019-two-midwesterners/slides/">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
<p>We got the audience we were hoping for: mostly folks who haven’t touched code much before, if at all.
Feedback suggests it might make a difference for at least a few of them.
For my part, co-presenting with Faye was easy and enjoyable, and her involvement made the session much more effective.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/NativeWired">Gitte Klitgaard</a>’s
keynote set a powerful tone for my third consecutive Big Apple Scrum Day.
It’s always a privilege to present
— and to provide free 1-on-1 sessions as part of
<a href="http://www.keystepstosuccess.com/2019/04/2019-big-apple-scrum-day-coaching-clinic-coaches-worksheet/">Gene Gendel’s Coaching Clinic</a>.
As an independent consultant, I especially appreciate the chance to offer something of value to an audience that’s local to me.</p>