March 31st marks my first day as an Analyst with Burton Group working in the Application Platform Strategies group. To an extent, this is a career change for me. Since I’ve been in IT, I’ve worked exclusively on enterprise development projects. Over the years, I’ve played most roles on the software development team, but my favorite has always been as the guy who gets his hands dirty writing code. Through writing and speaking, I’ve enjoyed sharing these experiences with others. To this point, however, any writing or speaking I’ve done has always been an extracurricular activity, making it feel like I’ve always had two jobs instead of one.

My role as an analyst means I’m no longer a software developer working in the trenches. The reality over the past couple years is that I was working less in the trenches anyway. As I continued to shape and express my software development beliefs, I also began to gravitate more toward leadership roles, though not always intentionally. Whereas I once coded all day every day, I now code only a few hours each week. Instead, I spend more time mentoring developers, evaluating emerging technologies, and guiding teams through the process improvement quagmire. But yes, through it all, I still code even if it’s of my own accord.

My new role offers some exciting opportunities. Foremost, I’ll be working for a great organization with a stellar reputation. I also feel I have a single job that that combines my passion of technology, software development, and software process with that of my desire to learn and teach. I’m excited for what lies ahead, knowing that I must be careful to remember the important real world lessons I’ve learned. I intend to continue writing code, hopefully experimenting with new languages, platforms, and tools. I look forward to working with new organizations, and meeting new people.

Since I’m moving onto what feels like a career change, I’ve also decided to update my web sites (Yes, I love to hack!). First in queue is this blog, which now has a new skin. I’ll also be moving content away from my home page and onto this blog. Eventually, the code I write will reside on Google Code. Probably other presently unforeseen changes too. I’m excited about what lies ahead, and my expectations are high.

I use WordPress as my blogging system, and a while back, I installed the Challenge Captcha. But recently the SpamBots broke it and have been able to find the correct answer to the math questions. As a result, they’ve been leaving their nasty comments. So, I’ve reconfigured the Challenge to ask the question in a more English style. I guess it’s pretty easy for the SpamBots to evaluate “3 x 4 + 2″. But now we’ll see how easy it is for them to evaluate “What is the sum of 2 and 4″.

I really don’t know who has the time or energy to waste on such things. And I don’t know what they are trying to accomplish other than being a nuisance.

Agile 2008, being held in Toronto August 4 to 8, seems like a long ways away. However, the submission system just went live this week. I’m excited because I have the opportunity to help organize the Developer Jam stage. There are a few changes surrounding the conference for 2008, starting with the submission system, which is wide open to the public. Any session proposed can be reviewed by any registered user, so hopefully we’ll build some great sessions with the level of community involvement we hope to achieve. Because the conference has been a sell-out the past few years, we’ve also secured a venue in Toronto that can host up to 1600+ individuals.

But what’s most exciting for me is the return of agile in the trenches…getting down and dirty with the developer again. My main issue with last years conference was that it seemed to have forgotten about the developer. There was so much “agile in the enterprise this”, and “application lifecycle management that”. So I’m very excited to help build a track (we’re calling them stages) that focuses exclusively on the developer. I know we can all still stand to learn more about unit testing, continuous integration, refactoring, and more. Please, take a look at the Developer Jam, submit a proposal or two, and provide some constructive feedback. We’ve assembled a great review committee consisting of some outstanding professional developers (listed at the bottom of the Developer Jam page). Let us know what you think would be cool to incorporate into the Developer Jam stage at Agile 2008.

I got blasted for the following quote in a recent eWeek article:

“If you’re in a large environment that is bureaucratic, filled with politics and has a [software development] process like the waterfall flavor of RUP [Rational Unified Process] what do you do?” Knoernschild asked. “It’s been my experience that the number one thing you can do is continuous integration. That can spawn so many business benefits.”

The blaster suggested that I have no idea what I’m talking about because there is no “waterfall flavor of RUP”. What I believe the blaster missed is the tongue in my cheek when I made the comment.

As is often the case, the quote didn’t capture the context of the statement. Many teams, when transitioning to an iterative process, commit a number of mistakes. One of the more common mistakes is to establish iterations centered around the traditional lifecycle phases. When I made the comment, I also pointed out that the “waterfall flavor of RUP” typically consists of the first iteration being the requirements iteration, followed by the design iteration, followed by the construction iteration, followed by the testing iteration, etc.

A bit later than I had hoped, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on Agile 2007 in Washington, D.C. last week.

I arrived at Agile 2007 on Wednesday, midway through the conference. After a few conversations with attendees , I’m certain I’ve captured the essence of the conference. Immediately upon arrival, I jumped right into the second half of a panel discussion focused on Agile Portfolio Management. Then last night, I was invited to an Agile Roundtable discussion hosted by the fine folks at Stelligent, where a significant portion of the conversation centered around agile adoption and transition. You can obtain an overview of the discussion in this eWeek article. Thursday, I attended two different sessions. The first discussed The Enterprise and Scrum, and the second focused on Agile in the Waterfall Enterprise.

Therein lies a major theme of Agile 2007 - agile transformation and agile adoption within the enterprise. It seems that the majority of speakers and attendees I’ve spoken with who have agile experience are Scrum masters, agile coaches, or agile mentors looking for better ways to bring agile to the enterprise. For instance, conversations that emphasize vendor integration and COTS software packages typically turned toward contract and vendor relationship management. But as a developer, my area of interest lies more with strategies related to testing an application that integrates with a COTS package, and the infrastructure required to support frequent deployment of a COTS package. Not that we need another session on testing… But seriously, we cannot forget the developer within the agile enterprise. Some ideas for great developer sessions that come to mind include choosing an agile technology stack, principles for increased architectural agility, and tools for an agile infrastructure. Maybe next year.

Of course, with that said, Agile 2007 appears to have been a smashing success. It was sold out well in advance, and the enthusiasm of the crowd was tremendous. The conference felt small and personal, which allowed for a high degree of interaction between the speakers, vendors, and attendees. Hallway discussions were frequent and intense. But after spending some time speaking to the folks in the trenches, I share their opinion…more content discussing agile development techniques would have made the conference even greater. After all, the developer produces the one [and only] artifact that truly matters..the source code (pssst…don’t forget that).

Now, onto SD Best Practices in Boston.

After being gone for about a year and a half, I’m back at TeamSoft, a high-end IT consulting firm. I know it sounds cliche to make the statement, but TeamSoft prides itself on the quality of it’s people. On average, TeamSoft professionals boast 13 years of industry experience. We also have a world-class training program, with some excellent instructors. We’ve been a Sun training partner since 2001, and are always looking to expand and grow our curriculum. As a TeamSoft employee, you know you’ll always remain close to cutting edge technology, as well as have the opportunity to work with other technologists who are passionate about technology. We’ve also expanded our services beyond software development, meaning that you’re exposed to a team of very diverse technologists. Yet while it’s a wonderful technology environment, we also remain very family-focused. The majority of our employees have children, and with little to no travel involved, you’ll enjoy the opportunity to spend time with your family. And Madison, WI is a great place to live.

My role at TeamSoft is similar to what it’s always been, with one caveat. We’ve grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and it’s important to us that we maintain the small company feel that our employees have grown to appreciate, while continuing to give employees the opportunity to work on great technology projects. Part of my additional responsibilities include leveraging the strengths that made TeamSoft a great small technology company to ensure TeamSoft is a great large technology company. On top of that, I also look forward to ensuring TeamSoft remains on the leading edge technologically. I’m excited to be back working with so many great people and experienced technologists helping build and evolve our culture as TeamSoft continues to grow.

TeamSoft is a great place to work, and Madison is a great place to live. I can speak firsthand that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Working for a great, family-focused company in a wonderful city and a low-stress environment may not be everyone’s cup o’ tea. But if it’s yours, I’d encourage you to at least check us out.

I spent yesterday at Architecture and Design World in Chicago, and led two talks – the first on Continuous Integration and the second on GOF Patterns. If you’ve not been to a conference organized by Dr. Dobbs Events group, I’d highly recommend one. For the past few years, I’ve been attending SD Expo, Architecture and Design World, and SD Best Practices, and repeatedly hear conference attendees remark on the quality of the events. A staple of these conferences is their avoidance of vendor specific talks, and emphasis on the latest and greatest techniques.

These conferences are a melting pot of ideas and individuals, and they offer excellent sessions for all. I spoke to developers using Ruby/Rails, Java, and .NET to develop enterprise web applications, software engineers developing embedded systems in C++, project managers interested in agile practices, and enterprise architects seeking to learn more about SOA. The range of sessions is fantastic. While one instructor is preaching the virtues of MDA, another is discussing Agile Modeling. The opinions and insight offered not only by the instructors, but the attendees, is invaluable to all those in attendance. There’s a lot of excellent discussion following the sessions, throughout the halls, and into the happy hour and BOF sessions. There really is something for everyone. If you haven’t had an opportunity to attend one of these events, I’d highly recommend it. Ask your peers who have been there, I’m sure they will too.

If you’re reading this, you’ve found the location of my new blog. I’ve just recently switched from Nucleus to Wordpress, and so far couldn’t be happier. The URL for the blog has changed to http://techdistrict.kirkk.com, so be sure to update your bookmarks and rss feed (http://techdistrict.kirkk.com/feed/). Here’s why I like Wordpress:

• Easier to modify the look & feel. I look forward to experimenting with plugins, and continuing to mess with the theme.
• Better captcha. I’m using the Challenge Captcha. Leave a comment, and you’ll see. No more sifting through what the spambots left, and approving the valid comments.
• Ability to Blog by e-mail, whereby I send an e-mail to a private personal account, and voila…it shows up as a blog entry.
• Easy, straightforward blog entry and admin panel. Just cleaner.
• Does a lot right “out of the box” such as pretty urls, and likely a whole lot more I don’t know about yet.

In the past, I’ve used PmWiki for a lot of content management, which is the technology behind my home page. As of now, that site isn’t going anywhere, and is where you’ll continue to find JarAnalyzer, AssAnalyzer, and other non-opinionated information related to my work.

Because I find WordPress easier to use, I’m hopeful this blog will be a bit more active. The Blog by e-mail feature is very nice, especially since most of my ideas come to me at odd times, and it’ll be easy to shoot an e-mail to the account I’ve setup for new blog entries, meaning I can do it on plane, train, automobile or anywhere else I don’t have a connection and simply leave it in my outbox till I’m back online.