What would you like to see at the Continuous Improvement Workshops?

I’m supposed to turn in the title and abstract for the workshop I’m giving as part of the Continuous Improvement in Software Development Conference in Austin (what an awkward name, but Kaizenconf sounds even sillier).  There is going to be a series of free (as in beer) workshops on the Thursday and Friday before the open spaces event starts.  I’ve got two options in mind for my workshop, but I’d love to hear from anybody who’s planning to be there what they might like.  We’ll try to get some or all of it recorded regardless.

  1. Opening the Kimono:  Chad Myers and I will open up our current architecture for our discussion.  We’ll talk about constructing and using internal DSL’s in C#, how we use the MVC framework, opinionated software design applied, and how we go about doing automated testing of the full application and our BDD flavored approach.  We’ll probably also talk about how we’re incorporating Fluent NHibernate, advanced IoC tool usage, and how to exploit many of the new C# 3 language features to your advantage.  I personally feel like the ASP.NET MVC framework is way too vanilla out of the box for efficient development, so I’d like to talk about adding “opinions” to the MVC to make it more efficient for your project.  In other words, you need to pimp out your MVC tool.
  2. Patterns for Composite Applications.  More of Build Your Own CAB, but this time it’ll be more WPF specific and I’ll get into many more of the actual patterns for coordinating screens and building a pluggable application.  Frankly, it’s to help me out with getting my book going, but I think I can make it worth the time.

Any thoughts?

About Jeremy Miller

Jeremy is the Chief Software Architect at Dovetail Software, the coolest ISV in Austin. Jeremy began his IT career writing "Shadow IT" applications to automate his engineering documentation, then wandered into software development because it looked like more fun. Jeremy is the author of the open source StructureMap tool for Dependency Injection with .Net, StoryTeller for supercharged acceptance testing in .Net, and one of the principal developers behind FubuMVC. Jeremy's thoughts on all things software can be found at The Shade Tree Developer at http://codebetter.com/jeremymiller.
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  • http://claudiolassala.spaces.live.com Claudio Lassala

    I like both items, but number 2 really appeals to me…

  • http://twitter.com/brian_henderson Brian Henderson

    Continuous Improvement is much more than tools; it is about making best use of the tool sets at hand, creating nurturing environments and positive synergies. I would like to discuss more beyond tools coding frameworks. e.g. CI servers, auto-build test-integration, scm strategies, integrating customer feedback, pulling user experience, etc.

    Look forward to attending Continuous Improvement Conf. (by whatever name).

    –Brian

  • http://stevenharman.net Steven Harman

    Since we’re on the topic of improvement… I’d like to see #1. I want to see how the Dovetail crew is improving on the vanilla tools out there to build more opinionated, lower friction tools that help you get stuff done.

  • http://www.opgenorth.net Tom Opgenorth

    Personally, I’d pick #1 as more interesting/relevant to me.

    (oh, and the free beer thing sounds good too)

  • http://anydiem.com Sean Scally

    A vote for #1.

    Also, a vote for screencasting that workshop somehow.

  • Evan

    My first thought:

    “Opening the Kimono”

    Dude. Keep that thing closed. I don’t swing like that…. ;-)

  • http://www.azamsharp.com Mohammad Azam

    Hi,

    I would love to attend but not sure why these things are on a weekday rather than the weekend?

    It would be great if someone can record the whole thing.

  • http://www.scottcreynolds.com Scott

    Jeremy:

    #1 with a bullet. I’ll sit in the front row.

  • http://brianc.me/blog BrianC

    Both sound good to me! #2 would be more applicable to me personally if you stress less on WPF and more on CAB in general, since I build multi-window apps w/ javascript and not WPF and some of us are still stuck writing winforms for our businesses. But I would never look a gift horse in the mouth. :) I read your series a while ago on building a CAB and it left me hungry fo’ mo.

    JMTV’s Pimp My MVC sounds very useful as well.

  • http://jimmybogard.lostechies.com Jimmy Bogard

    Definitely #1.

    I’ll be in the front row, but directly in front of Scott.

  • John Ruiz

    Jeremy, I would love to hear your thoughts on “how to get from here to there.”

    “Here” is the lethargic, process-riddled, contracted, customer-absent, government-domain software shop I work at.

    Old functional coders; 50-year-olds with Full-Scopes (essentially tenure). People who think putting business logic and data-access code in windows forms user controls is excellent encapsulation. Developers who ask me why I want to use “that complex IoC/DI thing” and then beg me to help them figure out how to do unit testing in the same breath. At times, it really hurts my soul to read your blog and then have to go to work the next day.

    “There” is the state of continual improvement that you exist in today, or are trying to achieve.

    Continuous Improvement is only useful for those who 1) know it’s worth moving toward and 2) know how to start the long, painful trek.

    I’d love some words of wisdom. Maybe that’s outside the scope of topics for your workshop, though…

  • http://www.scottcreynolds.com Scott

    I’m gonna be honest Jeremy, I wanna just buy you beer and ask you questions. The beer being an implicit contract to not laugh at me.

  • http://www.arcware.net Dave D.

    My vote is for #1. Lots of different topics and areas to get into with that.

  • http://colinjack.blogspot.com Colin Jack

    #1 would definitely interest me more, not going so hopefully you’re going to video the session?

  • http://www.theramblingdev.com Mark Hoffman

    #1 would be more interesting for us.

  • http://www.codebetter.com/blogs/raymond.lewallen Raymond Lewallen

    Hooters girls and buckets of beer.

  • http://www.twitter.com/MotoWilliams Eric

    I’d 2nd, 3rd, 4th or what ever for some video of these sessions.

  • http://elegantcode.com Jan Van Ryswyck

    vote for #1 and a front row seat for me please.

  • Weston M. Binford III

    I gotta go with #1.

  • http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller Jeremy D. Miller

    @All,

    #1 it is, and I’m looking forward to it. Gonna use this as some impetus to get things cleaned up fast in the ol’ architecture first though…

    @John Ruiz,

    If I knew the answer to that question I’d be a wealthy consultant. I don’t know that there’s an easy answer. My answer was to get out of that environment and go somewhere else. Come to the open spaces over the weekend and propose the topic.

  • Mr J

    #1 definitely appeals more to me, and I’d guess that it would have broader appeal in general