Optimizing PhpStorm IDE

The most valuable session so far. Christopher of Mayflower showed us how he optimized his PhpStorm IDE. After working almost two years with PyCharm (which is based on the same core like all other Jetbrains IDEs) I figured out almost a dozen of tricks which will definitely increase my productivity!

You can read the full session as a blog post here:

https://blog.mayflower.de/5993-Optimierung-der-Produktivitaet-mit-PHPStorm.html

Fighting fear driven development

Perhaps You have already worked in company where fear is the leading factor for everything. Did You encounter one or more of the following symptoms?

• Unrealistic Deadlines
• Debris Code
• Non-existent error culture
• Shame
• Suboptimal knowledge
• Fear of job loss
• Fear of bankruptcy
• Blaming and finger pointing

How can we fight such a culture?

• We have to see failures as systematic or at least team failures not individual ones.
• Problems should be documented
• Favor small changes
• Be a role model
• Be open for questions
• Create psychological safety in your team

But sometimes it is fight not flight, then you need an exit strategy.

JavaScript Refactoring Dojo

Great things happen when you leave your comfort zone. I’ve never done a coding dojo before left alone a pair programming session. The idea of this dojo is simple: take a project which you want to refactor, team up as a pair with driver and navigator and do a time boxed refactoring session.

From school to professional Developer

An interesting talk about the difference between education and work life. Everyone agreed that companies have to rethink their hiring process because degrees are no guarantee for coding skills while lateral entrants who lack the formal qualification can indeed be good software craftsman. Another trend in education seems to be problem based learning.

MVP – minimum releasable crap?

A good walkthrough of the dos and don’ts of an MVP – a minmum viable product. The Session was heavily influenced by Erik Kniberg’s blog article “Making sense of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) – and why I prefer Earliest Testable/Usable/Lovable”

Main takeaway: better call it “earliest testable release” 🙂

Bug handling across several teams

A little knowledge exchange how the participant’s companies handle bug tracking and issue management in general. I was very happy that my company e.solutions GmbH has a quite nice approach where almost everyone os allowed to give feedback of our products. Leave no bug behind(TM) 🙂

Summary

As I already said: I had a blast! The organisation was perfect, the location fitted the purpose / the idea of a barcamp very well. Coffee was great, food was delicious. Big thanks to the folks from Mayflower! I hope there will be a #devcamp18.

The post Developer Camp 2017 – Part 2 appeared first on Creatronix.

The Developer Camp 2017 took place at Z-Bau in Nuremberg on May 17th and 18th. 130 people gathered around 10:30 on Wednesday to plan the upcoming sessions.

The worst thing about barcamps: there are far too many sessions with great topics in parallel. So it is tough to pick the right ones for yourself.

34 sessions on Wednesday and 30 sessions on Thursday are a hell of a lot of topics.

So, which ones did I choose?

• Machine Learning with Apache Spark
• React Native
• Retrospective
• Agile Leadership
• Management Fuckups
• Typescript Primer
• Optimizing PhpStorm IDE
• Fighting Fear Driven Development
• JavaScript Refactoring Dojo
• From school to professional Developer
• MVP – minimum releasable crap?
• Bug handling across several teams

Machine Learning with Apache Spark

Dr. Philipp Brune from University of Applied Science of Neu-Ulm gave an overview about the Data Science Platform Apache Spark.

The core concept revolves around Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDD) a fundamental data structure of Spark. MLlib is Apache Spark’s machine learning library and you can access data via SparkQL a SQL dialect.

We discussed a couple of potential fields of application and came up with the idea to scan large code bases and apply machine learning to newly written code to assess its quality.

Not directly related book tip: Your code is a crime scene

React Native

Markus showed us how to build a tic tac toe game with React Native. The cool thing is that it compiles to native application either Android or iOS like Xamarin. Hot Reloading is a handy concept which updates the emulator every time when your code changes. So, if You like ReactJS You will certainly like React Native as well.

https://facebook.github.io/react-native/

Retrospective

Although I went to a scrum workshop and did some “scrum but” at work this session was quite inspiring. The easiest way to do a retro is the mad – glad – sad strategy: You draw 3 lanes on a whiteboard an everyone fills out some post-its an puts them into the corresponding lane. Voila!

Main Takeaways:

https://www.retrium.com/resources/techniques/mad-sad-glad

https://nomad8.com/a-5-why-root-cause-analysis-retrospective/

5 Phases of a Retro

• Set the stage
• Gather data
• Generate insights
• Decide what to do
• Close

Further rearding: https://leadingagileteams.com/2014/07/13/5-steps-to-an-effective-sprint-retrospective/

Vega’s Rule: What happens in a retro stays in the retro!

Agile Leadership, now for real

A great talk from Johann Hartmann, CTO of mayflower about the journey from classic management to transformational leadership in their company.

The talk was based on the Tribal Leadership book by David Logan et al.

Main Takeaways:

Levels of a scrum master:

1. Wolf in sheep’s clothing
2. Scrum scribe
3. Facilitator
4. Coach
5. Servant leader

Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

Core Protocols

Return on Time Invested

Drive by Daniel Pink

Management Brainfucks

The second talk from Johann.

Main Takeaways

Cynefin Framework

Business value of agile methods

The complete slide set:

https://www.slideshare.net/johannhartmann/management-brainfucks

TypeScript Primer

Typescript is a language invented by Microsoft which is transpiled to JavaScript and the main language of several modern frameworks like Angular2.

http://devcamp.jenetic.de/workshops/TypeScript-Primer.html

Craft Beer Tasting

The last “session”  had nothing to do with software but nevertheless with craftmanship. The organizers invited brewsers to present their beers. Some guys from Z-Bau also brew the Z-Bräu

BBQ

Catering was provided by Haun Catering. They know their stuff!

Due to the nice weather we had the chance to sit outside and enjoy ourselves until the late evening. Stay tuned for the second day!

The post Developer Camp 2017 – Part 1 appeared first on Creatronix.