This year’s North American CITCON will be in Denver on April 4th and 5th– registration is now open so claim your spot, this instant, before they run out (space is limited to the first 150 people)! If you dream about CI, talk in TDD, live for BDD, or constantly think about automated deployments, then the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference is for you!

I, for one, can’t wait to go, as the last time I went, I met great people and learned a load of new things too– it was the best two days I’ve ever spent in Texas! Plus, the conference is free and is run as an OpenSpaces event, so there’s no reason not come. Remember, space is limited so why are you still reading this and why aren’t you you signing up this instant?

Are you a developer who always keeps an eye out for a better way? Do you look outside the mainstream to adopt the best practices of any development community, including Open Source, Agile, Java, and Ruby communities? If so, then you might be an ALT.NET practitioner!

The meeting next month will bring DC ALT.NET to Reston, Virginia and the Stelligent headquarters on Wednesday, February 20th @ 7PM. Fine food and beverages (think wine and beer) will be plentiful!

ALT.NET is about following your own beliefs about application design, and using the .NET platform to support your ideas, rather than retro-fitting your ideas to the platform. Topics for discussion can include the following as well as others:

• Model View Controller Pattern (ASP.NET MVC/MonoRail)
• Inversion of Control (IoC) containers and Dependency Injection
• Domain Driven Design
• TDD and BDD
• Continuous Integration
• Agile, Scrum, XP

If you haven’t signed up for our list, go ahead and do that here. If you’re already a member, I hope you can make it out to Reston next month!

I had the pleasure of linking up with Rich Sharpe of Enerjy Software at CodeMash a fews ago where he asked me this direct question:

Is programming an art or a science?

Yeah, tough question, eh? Certainly made me squirm! So what do you think?

February promises to be a Groovy month as a coterie of forward thinking individuals are coming to discuss all things related to Groovy and the future of Java.

The Groovy/Grails Exchange will feature a multitude of concurrent tracks on Groovy and Grails development for the Java platform. There’s a great lineup of sessions scheduled featuring Groovy and Grails project core committers; including Grails project lead Graeme Rocher, author and speaker Scott Davis, core committer Jeff Brown, and many other groovy folks!

Stelligent’s own, Andrew Glover, will be speaking about Behavior-driven development with Groovy and using Groovy’s Gant for building Java applications. If you want to have your finger on the pulse of Java then you should consider attending!

Test Driven Development, or TDD has quite a few different connotations; in fact, at our recent TDD horror stories event, the definition of TDD itself was split down the middle. Half of the attendees defined TDD as writing a test before writing any code and the other half defined it as writing tests for anything that could break (thus, not necessarily writing a test first).

Of course, TDD stresses tests and by actually writing them, TDD enables a more robust design– so much so that often TDD is thought of as Test Driven Design. Accordingly, TDD facilitates a more maintainable design through the notion of tests. These tests force you to think about the behavior of the code and how to ensure it works as intended. More often than not, code bases influenced by TDD are relatively un-complex and arguably quite simple.

Code that is un-complex and simple is easier to change than code that exhibits opposite traits like complexity and brittleness. What’s more, because code written with TDD in mind is backed by tests, any changes that break the code are quickly spotted. In essence, TDD code is easier to change and easier to fix.

But TDD isn’t about easier changes either– at least not directly. No, TDD is all about speed. When teams execute consistently with TDD in mind, features are produced faster. Faster features means shorter time to market. Shorter time to market means greater change of obtaining more customers. Best of all, that speed to market is backed by a safety net of tests that enable rapid change in the same amount of time (if not quicker).

TDD is all about speed. Fixing defects that could have been spotted during development is a waste of time and money. Companies that are developing software without early testing will undoubtedly be stuck with a code base that can’t change easily– and they’ll be beaten by a company who is more nimble and quick– because they build solid code from the start with TDD.

We’re hiring! Come work for the fastest growing Agile consultancy in the mid-Atlantic region. We’re seeking Senior Consultants with Java experience for immediate Agile consulting work.

As a Senior Consultant for Stelligent, you will help transform customer teams through Agile methodologies, build expertise in the latest tools and technologies, and work closely with established Agile experts.

We are currently seeking candidates with:

• At least three years of Java development experience
• Experience in all phases of the software lifecycle
• Ability to work and communicate in diverse client environments
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies (Scrum and XP)
• Experience with test driven development (TDD), developer testing frameworks and continuous integration (CI)

Stelligent values team players that are interested in other people and new knowledge, open about exchanging ideas and practical in applying skills towards solving problems.

If this sounds like you, contact us today and tell us why you want to be a part of our team!

If you’re local to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, you’re going to want to clear your calendar the evening of Thursday, February 21st to join Stelligent at their roundtable on test-driven development (TDD). The evening will feature complimentary hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a candid discussion on TDD fundamentals, why it’s more than just unit testing, and how to embrace it in your organization.

When: Thursday, February 21st from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Windows on Minnesota (50th Floor of the IDS Center)

Whether you’re a TDD advocate (or working on a team that has yet to adopt the practice), everyone will come away with a better understanding of the advantages, as well as the challenges, based on experiences gained in real-world projects.

Space is limited so please RSVP no later than February 14th.