Build Stuff'16 Lithuania

It's way too easy to get caught into a path of 'I must be doing it wrong, everyone else seems to understand all this technology, and I don't get it'. The problem is that's wrong. We also have an obsession with 'you must be working on the right things!' And in order to learn how to put everything together, you need to practice. So, work on the wrong things first.

Finding developers with a good understanding of CQRS and Event sourcing, either new hires or existing internal resources is a core challenge. This talk will cover methods we have found on how to develop existing and new talent into effective CQRS-ES engineers. In 2.0 we build on methods for overcoming resistance and 'rules' to keep incompatible approaches at bay, and cover new training approaches we have found work to guide developers into learning how to think and solve problems using message based and CQRS approaches.

Every software team writes code, but some teams produce fewer bugs than others. Every software team creates new features, but some teams develop them faster than others. What do high performance teams do differently, and why are team members more focused, satisfied and relaxed? They truly work together. No 10x rockstar programmer can achieve what a well rounded, enthusiastic team can.
Sven examines how the best software teams set and follow goals, integrate new members fast, ensure diversity, monitor and continually improve team health, embrace transparency, create new processes, use a playbook to guide them through every phase of development and even develop creative & flexible work spaces for multidisciplinary projects. He shares techniques including: sparring, OKRs, feature buddies, open demos, focus weeks and many more that help teams and team members to work more effectively together, and produce awesome results.

Do strong personalities dominate your development team? Are code reviews painful? Are you blindly following  orders from a backlog, or are you learning from observation? Visual Thinking Strategies, or VTS, is a cross­disciplinary technique applicable to anyone working in a  collaborative setting where observation is key. VTS develops critical thinking skills by viewing and discussing  works of art in a group. It is backed by over 30 years of field research showing its effectiveness and  accessibility. By allowing individuals to talk about art ­ without needing a background in the field ­ VTS  advances skills you can use to create more relevant products and stronger teams: Observing, Brainstorming,  Speculating, Reasoning with Evidence, Cultivating a Point of View, and Revision & Elaboration. During this interactive exercise, we’ll discuss selected works of art as a group. There are no right answers or  group consensus being sought. We’re creating an environment and process for looking, thinking, reasoning  and revision skills that are mission­critical to anyone working in a software design or development role. After  our group discussion, I’ll introduce the basics of image selection and facilitating VTS sessions within your  organization. In addition to the above, I’ll cover how VTS can help you and your team with the following:  Comfort with Ambiguity, Openness to the Unfamiliar, Civil Debate, and Willingness to Participate in Group  Thinking.