For those of you who missed out on the first NYC Agile Firestarter that the NY ALT.NET User Group and the NY .NET User Group jointly organized in June of 2009, I just wanted to announce that there is a ‘sister’ event coming soon to the Central NJ Area: The Central NJ .NET Agile Firestarter!  Its being held the 12th of December, 2009 and space is limited so if you want to attend, you should make it a point to register at the above link ASAP.  Unlike the NYC event where we charged a nominal ($9.00) fee, this event is completely free to attendees but you must register in advance so that the organizers have a way to predict the number of attendees in advance.

I’ll Be There (but other players have changed!)

I’ve been asked to present my Intro-to-Agile concepts for Developers talk as well as deliver the talk and run a lab exercise on Agile Estimation techniques (delivered by Steve Forte at the NYC event), but the other sessions will be handled by members of the local Central NJ .NET Developer community.  See the above link for event registration and location!

The Agenda:

• Introduction to Agile
  A high-level introduction to Agile concepts and values from the software developer’s perspective.
• SOLID:  OO Principles
  This presentation will examine the five key design principals used on agile project and how to use them to build out an adaptive system over several cycles.
• Test-Driven Design & Development
  An introduction to Unit Testing and Test-Driven Development, showing how this approach helps keep your code adaptable to change
• Agile Estimation & SCRUM
  An overview of the concept of agile estimation and the notion of re-estimation
• Domain Driven Design
  An introduction to the core principles for applying a Domain Driven Design approach and how it fits into the agile development life cycle.
• Continuous Integration
  This session shows how to centralize your quality assurance efforts and help keep developer productivity high (and defect count low!)

The Presenters:

• Stephen Bohlen
  Currently a Senior Software Engineer for FirstPaper, LLC, a start-up in the world of digital media, Stephen brings his varied 15-year-plus experience as a former practicing Architect, CAD Manager, IT Technologist, Software Engineer, CTO, and consultant to the design and delivery of Software Engineering Solutions.Stephen is an active contributor to several Open-Source Software projects including NHibernate, NDbUnit, and others as well having developed a number of Visual Studio productivity add-ins. Active in the local NYC software development community, Stephen speaks publicly, blogs regularly, and is the author of several popular screencast series focused on Agile and ALT.NET concepts and technologies including the widely-praised 15-part Summer of NHibernate video series introducing viewers to the popular open-source O/RM tool and the Autumn of Agile series that takes viewers through the design, planning, and construction of an entire .NET project in an Agile context. He is also a contributor of a number of shorter screencasts available on Dimecasts.NET and elsewhere. Stephen is also a founding/organizing member of the NYC ALT.NET user group which meets monthly to discuss Agile-focused techniques and technologies in the world of Microsoft software development and beyond.
• Jess Chadwick
  Jess is an independent software consultant specializing in web technologies. He has over 9 years of development experience ranging from embedded devices in start-ups to enterprise-scale web farms at Fortune 500s. He is an ASPInsider, Microsoft MVP in ASP.NET, technical editor of the recently-released Silverlight 3 Programmers Reference (WROX) and leader of the NJDOTNET Central New Jersey .NET user group.
• Sara Chipps
  Sara is a developer specializing in web applications, an irreverent blogger at GirlDeveloper.com, and a writer for Datamation.com. She enjoys participating in and organizing community events such as Code Camps and most recently NJ Tech Drinks and Concept Camp, an opportunity for nerds to go camping together.
• Peter Laudati
  Peter Laudati, the "JrzyShr Dev Guy," is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, based in the New York/New Jersey area. One of his roles is supporting and educating Microsoft customers working with the .NET development platform. Peter supports the community of .NET developers in the NY Metro area by speaking at user group events and Code Camps. Peter is also the co-host of the “Connected Show”, a new podcast covering Microsoft technology with a focus on interoperability.  His blog can be found at http://www.peterlaudati.com.
• Todd Snyder
  Todd is a MCSD in .Net and a MCTS in SharePoint & Biztalk. He works in the Infragistics Experience Guidance Group (XDG) as the developer team lead. In his role as the XDG developer team lead Todd is responsible for making sure the samples include with Net Advantage showcase the capabilities of the product and help educate developers on how to tap into those capabilities. Prior to joining Infragistics Todd spent several years working as consultant helping customers build enterprise .Net applications.

Still Tentatively Planning another NYC Agile Firestarter!

If you cannot make it to the  upcoming NJ event, rest assured that there are still plans afoot to hold another NYC-based Agile Firestarter event later in 2010 so stay tuned for updated info on that event as it starts to gel!

Till then, Happing Coding and hope to see you in NJ on the 12th!