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Monday, November 16, 2009
The day begins at 8:00 AM with check-in. Coffee, tea and water will be available.
Morning Tutorials begin at 8:30, followed by lunch at 12 noon. The afternoon tutorials begin at 1:00 PM and are followed by a reception dinner at 5 PM.
The topics covered in the tutorials are immediately below, followed by more detailed descriptions. All the tutorials are half day and include the following titles:
- Natural Laws of Software Development by Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson
- An Introduction to FLEX by Jeremy Anderson, Atomic Object
- Test Pairing: How to use test pairing as a method by Karen Johnson
- Help! I’ve Got a Sharepoint Site by Becky Bertram
- Get Started with Powershell by Pat Bailey
- Testing for the Web (Performance, Accessability etc by Jeff McWherter
*These are not listed in order at this time. The specific schedule will soon be released.
Ron Jeffries & Chet Hendrickson: Natural Laws of Software Development
We offer the beginning of a unified theory of software development, deriving the practices that are necessary in order to do software profitably and well.
Starting from simple and commonly-held assumptions, we will explore the dynamic behavior of a software project, and will derive both management practices, and technical practices, as the inevitable consequences of iterative software delivery.
Those who pay for our software development need benefits, profit, information, flexibility. To provide what the business side needs, Agile and XP practices are not just helpful: they are essentially mandatory.
Process/Mechanics : The talk will be based around a growing series of graphs and pictures illustrating what happens on a software project. Relationships between practices — what we do — and what happens will be shown with both static and dynamic charts.
As with all Jeffries / Hendrickson sessions, this one will be highly dynamic, and entertaining as well as enlightening.
Jeremy Anderson: Introduction to FLEX
Jeremy Anderson is a software developer at Atomic Object in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is currently co-authoring the book on Flex On Java for Manning Publications (http://manning.com/allmon).
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Rich Internet Application (RIA) platforms like Flex for some time now, and many books written on how to do Flex development, however much of what’s being taught just will not scale beyond the trivial examples. Even the more popular MVC frameworks are fraught with fragile architecture, untestable code and anti-patterns.
In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to develop scalable, robust, and testable Flex applications using the Model View Presenter (MVP) design pattern. Specifically, we’ll using Atomic Object’s Presenter First refinement of MVP. We’ll start with an existing web application developed in Ruby on Rails and put a fresh new face on it using Flex.
Some of the things we’ll touch on in this tutorial are:
- How to implement the Model View Presenter pattern in Flex.
- Writing unit tests using FlexUnit4.
- Leveraging mock objects for unit testing.
- How to connect to a RESTful web service using Flex.
- How to leverage continuous integration for your Flex application.
Attendees are expected to have a laptop with a working Ruby on Rails installation as well as MySQL and an editor/IDE that they are comfortable in. No prior experience developing with Flex is required, some familiarity will be helpful as we will not be covering the basic concepts in very much depth.
Karen Johnson: Test Pairing: How to use test pairing as a method
How can automation testing be coordinated with manual testing efforts? How can functional testing be coordinated with performance testing? This tutorial illustrates how pairing different types of testing can build effective test coverage. This workshop explores how to use test pairing to develop robust testing.
The tutorial begins with an overview of different “types” of testing including: manual, automated, functional, performance, regression and more. This overview is a helpful introduction for new testers to identify and understand different types of testing. The tutorial offers a refresher for more experienced testers.
The tutorial continues with an investigation into different methods of conducting a test analysis. How do you analyze an application and determine what to test? The class explores different methods of test analysis. Students then team together to conduct a test analysis based on case studies. As a team, students are able to compare and contrast different types of testing and different methods of analysis.
After reviewing different types of testing and investigating different approaches to test analysis, Karen outlines ways to use test pairing to utilize existing staff, leverage test tools and increase confidence in test coverage.
Learning Objectives* Learn how to pair different types of testing to build effective test coverage. * Learn about the different types of testing. * Identify and explore different ways to conduct a test analysis. * Learn how to use the concept of test pairing to utilize existing staff, leverage test tools and increase confidence in test coverage.
AudienceThis workshop benefits Project Managers who want to understand the different types of testing available; for Project Managers, this workshop offers an introduction to testing. For Test Managers and Testers who with beginning to intermediate level skills, the workshop offers creative ideas to test planning as well as a comprehensive overview of the types of testing.
Jeff McWherter: Testing for the Web (Performance, Accessability etc)
Jeff McWherter is a well respected developer in West Michigan. He did so well with his general track presentation last year, we invited him to present a tutorial on this subject he is passionate about.
What do you think of when you hear testing for the web? Some may wonder “Does my web application work across multiple browsers?” or “Is my web application secure?” Cross-browser compatibility and security should both be tested for when developing web applications, but there are also a number of other testing disciplines that should be considered.
This session will discuss, in detail, the types of web testing disciplines that all web developers should be aware of. With so many testing disciplines out there, and so little time to cover them, this session will briefly discuss each discipline and then drill into Performance Testing, Accessibility Testing and Security Testing in more depth.
Preliminary Concerns:
Before we even start to think about testing “web specifics”, we will delve into some testing basics like what makes a good test, separation of concerns, and why developers push back when it comes to automated testing will be covered.
Performance Testing :
Have you ever deployed a web application, only to find out a few hours later that users could not access it because it was running too slow? During this portion of the session we will cover how performance testing can help you to avoid this embarrassing scenario.
Accessibility Testing: Are you concerned that some of your web application’s audience may have accessibility issues when visiting your website? In the past few years, accessibility has become a checklist that web developers follow only because they have to. In this session, we will cover the standards, but also step away from the standards and use tools that help put us in the place of a user with a disability.
Security Testing: Security testing of web applications is such a broad topic that it would take days to cover in its entirety. Because of this, we will narrow the scope and cover the key basics of security testing on the web. This portion of the session will cover how to ensure your web application is secure using the OWASP 2007 Top as a guideline.
Although many of the tools that will be used will be on the Microsoft stack, the techniques translate to any technology, and some of the equivalent tools for the Java world will be demonstrated.
Copies of the source code and the free tools used in the session will be provided to the attendees so that they can “follow along” and get assistance if they run into trouble. For those who will not be bringing a laptop computer, the source code and free tools will be available for download after the session, and my contact info will be provided.
Jeff is the Director of Simplicity at Web Ascender, a web consulting firm based in Okemos, Michigan. Jeff is an ASP.net MVP, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSCD), a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) and author for ASP Alliance. Jeff is Program Director and a founding member of the Greater Lansing Users for .Net (GLUG net).
Becky Bertram (Microsoft MVP): Help! I’ve Got a Sharepoint Site! Now What?
Please Note: Prior to attending this tutorial, it will be helpful if you download the free copy of Sharepoint Designer by clicking here.
Becky Bertram is an officially designated Microsoft MVP who works independently in St. Louis, Illinois. She brings her expertise on strategic considerations of implementing Sharepoint.
As a Development Manager, you might have heard the word SharePoint once or twice, but now you’ve been tasked with implementing a SharePoint solution in your own organization. As you probably already know, installing the software is just the beginning. In this tutorial, we’ll help you understand the types of issues you’ll need to consider when rolling out a SharePoint solution. We’ll be covering topics such as:
- What is SharePoint? What does it do?
- What is the difference between Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)?
- Is SharePoint meant for internal Intranets, or for public-facing Internet sites?
- How is SharePoint customized?
- What tools will my developers need in order to customize SharePoint?
- Who will manage and maintain my SharePoint implementation?
- SharePoint 2010 is just around the corner. What can we look forward to in the next version of SharePoint?
Come to this tutorial and learn about how SharePoint can be leveraged in real-world scenarios like your own. Becky’s websiite is http://www.beckybertram.com/
Patrick Bailey: Power Up with Powershell
Last year, Pat Bailey provided an overview of Powershell’s features. His detailed analysis of Powershell’s features compared to other scripting languages he worked with over 20 years was well received. Given that it will be bundled with Windows 7, this may be the time to get a hands-on introduction. The tutorial will include the following:
- Basics
- Explaining the purpose to powershell
- Exploring cmdlets (command-lets)
- Understanding PS Drives
- Reviewing Powershells alignment with the .Net Framework
- Programming in Powershell
- Basic constructs and features
- Script blocks and functions
- Scripts and Error/Exception handling
Proceeds from the Powershell tutorial will be donated to the Dynamic Link fund that supports student run projects within the Computer Science Department of Calvin College.
