SoftwareGR

When: Tuesday, June 28th, 6pm – 8pm

Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, 49506

Please RSVP if you plan on attending

Carl and Mike will be talking about the use of burn-up charts as a vital element of data-driven project management. Atomic has been using this simple technique for more than five years.

Burn-up charts are a lightweight method of tracking a team’s progress toward completing a project. Burn-up charts do this by visualizing overall project scope and the rate of task completion over time. These highly visible charts help facilitate predictable (in time and money) delivery and increased customer/team alignment.

During this hands-on presentation, Carl and Mike will break down how Atomic creates and uses burn-up charts to manage projects. Participants will learn about complexity points, relative estimation, burn-up chart creation/management and pitfalls associated with using burn-up charts.

About the presenters

Carl Erickson received his MS and PhD in computer engineering in 1991 from Michigan State University, and a BS in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1985. As a faculty member at Grand Valley State University from 1991 to 2000, he taught computer science courses in networking, operating systems, architecture, and object technology. During this time, Carl was principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants for developing operating systems and architecture laboratories.

In early 2000, seeking an opportunity to apply his teachings, Carl took a position as Vice President of Technology Development for Deltamode, a startup company based in Austin, Texas. Twelve months later, Deltamode was shuttered due to insufficient working capital, providing Carl with two life-changing lessons: (1) write software for the REAL needs of REAL people, and (2) agile practices can change the software world. Partnering with Bill Bereza, Atomic Object was born in the summer of 2001.

Michael Marsiglia began working with the founders of Atomic Object in the summer of 2000 after his freshman year in college. After completing the computer science degree at Grand Valley State University in 2003, Michael made the transition from intern to full time employee. Over the next few years Michael played a vital role in helping to establish the identity and best practices of the small company.

In 2005, Michael took a life opportunity when he decided to take a job on the east coast with X-Rite Inc. While at X-Rite, he helped to bring an agile atmosphere and culture to his team. By showing others his excitement for pair programming and testing, he helped raise both the morale and productivity of the team. During his time at X-Rite, Michael also had the opportunity to interact with a wide range of people from different departments. He engaged in international business development including facilitating sales while traveling in Japan. Living on the east coast and working for X-Rite was a very positive and educational experience for him.

In the summer of 2008, Michael moved back to Grand Rapids. He was delighted to find a welcome home at Atomic Object. He looks forward to helping Atomic Object sustain its impeccable reputation for first class software, and extend its business offering.

When: May 18th, 6pm – 8pm NOTE: This is not on our regular schedule. This event is on Wednesday the 18th.

Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, 49506

Please RSVP here if you plan on attending

Interested in doing a startup? Thinking about joining one? Just want to know how Silicon Valley works? Former Grand Rapidian and current San Francisco startup CTO William Pietri answers your questions on the startup lifecycle.

This dynamic talk will be primarily audience-driven. Submit questions now.

About William Pietri

William, the son of a systems analyst and a serial entrepreneur, started earning his lunch money with a computer at the age of 13. He got involved with web community pioneer bianca.com in 1994, and with the Agile movement in 2000. Currently he’s the CTO and co-founder of a venture-backed startup that helps people use their social networks to make better purchasing decisions. He is strong advocate of Lean Startup methods.

When: April 26th, 6pm – 8pm

Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

Please RSVP here if you plan on attending

J.R. Jenks is proud to say that he grew up with the computer industry. He first learned to program as a child when programming meant linking to an HP2000 mainframe using a Teletype and a 100 bps modem. He recalls that his family owned one of the first models of a personal computer, the KIM-1, which they built from a kit.

That sense of curiosity and experimentation has carried J.R. forward and he has remained at the leading edge of computer technology and design for almost 20 years. He wrote the software for the first public OLE for Process Control (OPC) demonstration at National Manufacturing Week 1998. He also wrote one of the first automated test harnesses for the Win32 platform, bringing the Extreme Programming practice of “Relentless Testing” to COM and Windows development. J.R. was an early practitioner and advocate of XP in his capacity as Technology Architect at Geneer Corporation.

J.R. is AgileTek’s Chief Technology Officer. He brings to the job his hands-on experience and proficiency with a vast array of technologies, including XML, Enterprise Java, Open Source Software, .NET and Automated Testing.

His industry background includes applications and design done for nuclear power plants, aerospace, insurance and a wide variety of manufacturers.

The Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference is coming soon! Early bird registration ends on March 27th so reserve your slot now. The full program and information is available now on GLSEC.org

Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

When: March 22nd, 6pm to 8pm

Please RSVP here if you plan on attending

Walter Bright graduated from Caltech in 1979 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for Boeing for 3 years on the development of the 757 stabilizer trim system. He then switched to writing software, in particular compilers, and has been writing them ever since.

Walter’s latest work has been on the D programming language: “D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability.”

Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

When: February 22nd, 6pm to 8pm

Please RSVP here if you plan on attending

About the presentation

Our group of scientists have formulated a suite of tools that make growing robust C applications an enjoyable endeavor. We take care of providing the checks and balances and also utilities for run-time error handling. This mingling of forces facilitates organic growth of maintainable, robust, and infinitely powerful applications that can effectively rule the world. Unity, Ceedling, CMock and CException are open-source (free) tools whose aim is to make setting up and growing embedded C applications a trivial effort so that developers can focus on features and content.

The first half of the evening, we will be providing a high level overview of our tools as well as announcing our new website whose intent is to serve as an information hub to explore, learn and access these tools for use in your embedded endeavors. The second half will be focused on delving further into these tools and show them in action.

About the presenters: Greg Williams & Mike Karlesky

Greg Williams graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in EE and CPE and started his career in Tucson, AZ as a test tool engineer at IBM, designing systems for validating the performance and robustness of networked storage libraries. From there, he ventured on to work at X-Rite, Inc., developing automated-test equipment for production testing of color measurement instrumentation and then moved on to embedded product development. Greg joined Atomic Object in order to help expand TDD and continuous integration into the embedded realm, where we were told it was impossible. He and his fellow Atoms embarked on a journey to make TDD in the C language a reality. This adventure led to the creation the open-source tools under discussion this evening. These projects are toolsmith creations that utilize the Ruby scripting language to make TDD in C an easily achievable reality. Greg has presented at the Embedded Systems Conferences in both Silicon Valley and Boston, as well at the GLSEC here in Grand Rapids.

Mike Karlesky holds degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He has developed projects such as a DSP-based weather processing system, an automated calibration for temperature sensors, and a QNX-based proof-of-concept target finding platform for the military. Mike holds an interest in applying Agile methods and Test-Driven Development in embedded software and has presented at the GLSEC and ESC conferences on such topics. He is also a contributor to the tools Unity, CMock, and Ceedling that support these practices. He has been involved with several startups and worked as an independent consultant before joining Atomic Object in 2004.

Who: Joe Stump
When: January 25th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506
RSVPs: Register here

Joe Stump is a Michigan native and an accomplished developer, systems administrator, and founder. Joe worked for several years as the director of IT for eNotes.com. Joe left eNotes to work at social links site Digg.com, where he spent two years as their lead architect.

More recently Joe has co-founded the startup SimpleGeo, which provides location services for other developers.

Joe will be sharing his wide experience on the challenges of building a company, scaling software, and geolocating services to the Software GR group on January 25th. I hope we’ll see you there!

Yesterday we had Dennis Stevens speak here at Software GR. Check out Carl Erickson’s write up here.

Video here.

Who: Dennis Stevens
When: December 14th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506
RSVPs: Register here

For over 25 years, Dennis has been passionate about helping organizations deliver technology that makes a difference for their business. For 15+ years, he has served in enterprise project management and leadership roles. He advocates blending responsible Lean and Agile Software Project Management with traditional project management practices in the Enterprise. He was a significant contributor to Microsoft’s business architecture offering, has earned certification as a Project Management Professional, in Lean Value Stream mapping, as an OPM3 Professional, as a Certified Scrum Master, and as a Kanban Coach.

Dennis frequently speaks at local events and international conferences about Enterprise Agile Project Management and writes extensively, including publication in Harvard Business Review (“The Next Revolution in Productivity,” Harvard Business Review, June 2008) and The Cutter Consortium ( “Re-thinking the Agile Enterprise,” Cutter Consortium Executive Report, July 2009). Dennis is supporting the advancement of Agile Project Management as a leader in PMI’s Agile Community of Practice and on the working group exploring how PMI can best support Agile.

Dennis served in the USMC, attended FSU on a violin scholarship, helped coach the 2008 12U Girl’s AAU National Champions, and has a degree in Organizational Psychology and Development.

Who: Chris McMahon
When: October 26th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506
RSVPs: Register here

Last month we had a great start with Steve Smith! If you missed it, check the video, and be sure not to miss our October meeting:

About the presentation

The current state of User Experience work in software development is missing critical knowledge and critical conceptual tools necessary for understanding how large numbers of users interact with applications in the public arena.  In this talk, Chris will point out exactly what is missing, and will suggest some approaches for improving that understanding.   Along the way, he will mention some other unusual and unexpected areas of work that will be influencing software development in the very near future.

About the speaker

Chris McMahon is a software tester and a former professional musician. His work has appeared in Better Software magazine, stickyminds.com, SearchSoftwareQuality.com, Software Test and Performance magazine, and in the book Beautiful Testing, among other places.  He founded the Writing About Testing peer conference where he lives in Durango, Colorado. He can be eccentric.