The Variation Point

Recent Posts

• Code Generation 2009 clips

  Posted: 25 Jun 2009 at 12:00 by Mark Dalgarno

  Missed Code Generation 2009? See what others thought:

• Practical Product Lines 2009 – Final Call for Speakers

  Posted: 19 Jun 2009 at 06:30 by Mark Dalgarno

  The Call for Speakers for October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam is Friday 26th June 2009.
Proposals are invited covering topics on any practical aspect of System and Software Product Lines.
Sessions could cover topics such as:

Migrating legacy systems to Product Lines
Model-Driven Software Development for Software Product Lines
Product Line evolution
Domain Analysis and Domain Engineering
Agile methods for [...]

• Bosch and Völter announced as PPL2009 keynotes

  Posted: 12 Jun 2009 at 10:01 by Mark Dalgarno

  The first keynote speakers for October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam have been announced as Jan Bosch (Intuit) and Markus Völter (independent / itemis). Jan is a well-known product line speaker, practitioner and researcher with a long history working on software product lines and strategic software reuse with organisations such as Intuit, Nokia Research, [...]

• Code Generation 2009 – update #5

  Posted: 11 Jun 2009 at 15:50 by Mark Dalgarno

  It’s hard to believe that this year’s Code Generation conference is happening next week. We’ve been working on the event for over a year now and it’s taken lots of people to bring the event together but we’re almost there.
Peter Bell and Andrew Watson have been busy recruiting an excellent set of panellists for the respective  panel [...]

• Code Generation 2009 - don’t miss out!

  Posted: 02 Jun 2009 at 07:00 by Mark Dalgarno

  Booking for this year’s Code Generation conference in Cambridge, UK will close shortly.
Participants at previous year’s events have said it was the best conference they’ve been to in a long time with 100% of participants at last year’s event saying it was good value for money.
This year we have a very strong programme of 30+ sessions focussed [...]

• Code Generation 2009 - Late Booking Charge next week!

  Posted: 26 May 2009 at 07:30 by Mark Dalgarno

  A quick reminder that the booking fees for next month’s Code Generation 2009 conference in Cambridge increase by 10% next week.
This is to reduce our stress levels ahead of the event - knowing how many people will be coming to the event is very important If you don’t believe us - try organising a [...]

• Code Generation 2009 - Update #4

  Posted: 19 May 2009 at 13:16 by Mark Dalgarno

  With just 4 weeks to go before this year’s Code Generation conference things are hotting up around here.
After seeing how successful the lightning talks were at this year’s ACCU conference we’ve decided to run some ourselves. The format will be a 10 minute session using only PDF slides - no demos. These will take place [...]

• Joseph Pelrine Makes Sense of Agile

  Posted: 08 May 2009 at 15:18 by Mark Dalgarno

  May’s Software East event will have as its focus a talk by Joseph Pelrine, one of Europe’s leading experts on eXtreme Programming as well as Europe’s first certified ScrumMaster Practitioner and Trainer. The event will take place at Downing College, Cambridge on 21st May.
This session, titled Making Sense of Agile is relevant for anyone who [...]

• The Copy-and-Paste Programming Manifesto

  Posted: 06 May 2009 at 14:33 by Mark Dalgarno

  Manifestos have been all the rage in software development since the agile manifesto was launched in 2001. Given the success of that manifesto, I felt it was time to put together my own manifesto to stop what I believe is one of the most serious problems in modern software development - copy-and-paste programming. I launched my manifesto at the ACCU [...]

• Pitching Agile at SPA2009

  Posted: 05 May 2009 at 19:04 by Mark Dalgarno

  Dave Harvey and Pete Marks ran something a bit different at SPA 2009 last month. The idea was that, working in groups, people would pitch the idea of using agile development methods to a group of industry veterans hand-picked for their ability to ask awkward questions. In the scenario, each of the veterans worked for the same hypothetical big [...]

• ACCU SW meet-up

  Posted: 05 May 2009 at 10:28 by Mark Dalgarno

  Since I’m in the Bristol area next week for the Embedded Masterclass I suggested that Monday 11th May might be a nice night for an ACCU South-West meet-up.
The plan is to meet at the Old India curry house around 18:30 - 19:00. Drop me a line if you’re coming so we can reserve a seat [...]

• Avoid the CG2009 late booking fee

  Posted: 02 May 2009 at 09:35 by Mark Dalgarno

  If you are planning oncoming to next month’s Code Generation conference it’s worth booking before the end of May since we’ll be adding a 10% surcharge on bookings in June.
Sorry, but it makes things mich more cost-effective for us if people book just that little bit earlier than they might otherwise have done…

• Embedded Masterclass 2009

  Posted: 01 May 2009 at 07:41 by Mark Dalgarno

  This year’s Embedded Masterclass event takes place in Cambridge on 7th May and Bristol on 12th May. The event focusses on the latest developments in embedded systems development and is free for embedded systems engineers and managers working with embedded technologies.
It’s a fun event without the hard-sell of some other events we exhibit at and over [...]

• Practical Product Lines 2009 - Call for Speakers

  Posted: 30 Apr 2009 at 07:00 by Mark Dalgarno

  In case you haven’t noticed we’re looking for industrial practitioners to share their experiences at October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam.
Here’s the Call for Speakers…
PPL09 Call for Speakers. Submission Deadline Friday 26th June 2009
We are seeking high-quality session proposals covering topics on any practical aspect of Software and System Product Lines
Sessions could cover [...]

• Announcing Practical Product Lines 2009

  Posted: 28 Apr 2009 at 10:05 by Mark Dalgarno

  I’m very pleased to announce that Software Acumen is part of the team behind the new Practical Product Lines conference due to take place in Amsterdam from 20-21 October 2009.
With its emphasis on providing actionable guidance on best practices, Practical Product Lines 2009 will be the ideal opportunity for software practitioners to understand how to benefit [...]

• Smelly documents at SPA 2009

  Posted: 06 Apr 2009 at 16:54 by Mark Dalgarno

  I took part in the session Writing and Reviewing Technical Documents at SPA 2009 today. Nick Rozanski and Andy Longshaw put this together and delivered it in their usual masterful way. The core of the session involved group work to analyse an invented technical document. This was supported by a fair number of slides looking at [...]

• Looking forward to SPA 2009

  Posted: 04 Apr 2009 at 12:30 by Mark Dalgarno

  The annual BCS Software Practice Advancement conference starts tomorrow and I’ll be there to help to help Andy Moorley with the set up and to take part in some of the sessions.
If you haven’t been to this conference before you’re in for a treat - lots of great sessions and a very knowledgeable audience too. [...]

• Code Generation 2009 Early-Bird booking closing soon

  Posted: 29 Mar 2009 at 17:29 by Mark Dalgarno

  The discounted booking period for June’s Code Generation 2009 event closes at midnight on 31st March. Bedroom accommodation at the venue is also going fast. Save £110 by booking now and grab a bedroom before they all go.

• Code Generation 2009 - Update #3

  Posted: 20 Mar 2009 at 15:18 by Mark Dalgarno

  Now that the Code Generation 2009 program has been finalised it’s been time to focus on details such as getting people to come to the event :-).
The first bookings came in within a couple of days of booking opening - thanks guys, you know who you are - so it seems that at least some people have heard [...]

• Knowledge Industry Survival Strategy Initiative

  Posted: 13 Mar 2009 at 08:30 by Mark Dalgarno

  The Knowledge Industry Survival Strategy (KISS) aims to increase awareness about the role that domain specific modeling languages can play in capturing, preserving, and exploiting knowledge in virtually all industries. As part of this initiative the group is organising a series of workshops including one at Code Generation 2009. Workshop Objectives Reaching a strong consensus on fundamental values [...]

• Technology Product Management event - Early-bird booking closes soon

  Posted: 08 Mar 2009 at 19:01 by Mark Dalgarno

  Software East’s March 19th event in Cambridge is themed around Product Management.
Tickets (including light buffet) cost £15 if booked on or before 12th March. £20 thereafter. ACCU members get 10% off these booking fees.
Synopsis
Product Management is an essential activity for any technology company but it is not always performed well. In this session we’ll share [...]

• Code Generation 2009 Update #2

  Posted: 06 Mar 2009 at 09:21 by Mark Dalgarno

  Lots of news on June’s Code Generation conference…
The conference program is now online - 30+ case studies, tutorials, hands-on sessions, panels, goldfish bowls and 2 keynotes from Steven Kelly (MetaCase) and Markus Völter (Independent / itemis). Other speakers include Stuart Kent (Microsoft), Kathleen Dollard (AppVenture), Sven Efftinge (itemis), Konstantin Solomatov (JetBrains) and Juha-Pekka Tolvanen (MetaCase).
An [...]

• When Good Architecture Goes Bad talk - 4th March

  Posted: 26 Jan 2009 at 11:27 by Mark Dalgarno

  I’ve been invited to speak at BCS SPA London on 4th March on the subject When Good Architecture Goes Bad.
Here’s the synopsis:
As software evolves, its architecture ‘as-is’ gradually deviates from its architecture ‘as-hoped-for’ – the software is said to erode or decay.
Software Erosion can be a problem because:

the time, effort and risk in implementing further [...]

• Technology Product Management @ Software East

  Posted: 23 Jan 2009 at 18:04 by Mark Dalgarno

  March’s Software East event will focus on Technology Product Management. The event will take place at Downing College, Cambridge on the evening of Thursday 19th March.
The event will include a goldfish bowl session and I’m rounding up some subject-matter experts to act as goldfish. I’ve already approached a few people but anyone who thinks they’d make [...]

• CG2009 Keynotes to cover Best and Worst MDD practices

  Posted: 21 Jan 2009 at 21:24 by Mark Dalgarno

  Our Code Generation 2009 keynotes Steven Kelly and Markus Völter have decided to break with tradition and will join forces to deliver both keynote talks as a team: MDD: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly will cover the best and worst practices of Model-Driven Development at an introductory level. MDD: The Best, The Worst and The Ugliest will [...]