Change of Topic - Zach Dennis: "Sand Piles and Software"
When: March 27, 2012
We received notice that unfortunately our originally scheduled speaker is out sick and will be unable to speak. Taking up the torch on very short notice (Thanks Zach!) is Grand Rapids local, entrepreneur, and author Zach Dennis.
Our originally scheduled speakerfor March, Lisamarie Babik, has had to cancel due to illness, so Lisamarie will not be joining us. Instead, Grand Rapids local, entrepreneur, author, and engineer Zach Dennis will be presenting "Sand Piles and Software":
This talk applies a concept from the realm of complex systems to software development using the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sand pile model as the vehicle for exploration. The sand pile model, which can be use to show how a complex system is attracted to living on the edge of chaos, will be used as a both a powerful metaphor and analogy for the process of building software. Software, it turns out, has its own natural attractions to its chaos. In this talk, we'll look at what this means and its implications.
The speaker's hypothesis is that is that by better understanding how complex systems work we can gain insights to better understand and improve the act of building software. This thoughtprovoking perspective will leave you with new ways to think about software development as well as new ways to question it.
About the speaker
Zach is a software craftsman and partner at Mutually Human and with over ten years of experience in professional software development. He believes strongly in taking a pragmatic and practical approach to both software development and testing processes, and is a published contributor to The RSpec Book. He can be found at Continuous Thinking and on Twitter at @zachdennis.