Agile Sharepoint development by 21apps and Andrew Woodward MVP

The past month seems to have been a complete blur,  so much new information to take in so many great people to meet and yet so many more that I wanted to spend more time with.

Listening

The SharePoint Conference 2009 (SPC09) in Vegas was, to put it simply,  AWESOME!  Seven thousand people in one place all buzzing with excitement about the new features in SharePoint 2010.   Although I had the privilege of playing with some of the bits before the event,  it really was at the event that you’re understanding as to the size of the investment,  the amount of improvements and the amount of information and knowledge that we are going to have to take in over the coming months and years became clear.  If you thought SharePoint 2007 was a big product – ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet!’  It was also great to be part of the Worlds Biggest SharePint at the Eye Candy Bar – Kudos to Andrew Connell for putting this on.

Speaking

One of the things that I find the most enjoyable about being part of the SharePoint community is the opportunity to share my passion and knowledge.   I do like to speak (not for some personal gratification) but to be able to share all of the cool things that I have discovered.  Having such a great platform to talk about just makes it so much easier. 

MVP Open Day

The week after SPC09 I attended the UK and Ireland MVP Open Day in Reading.   This is a great opportunity put on my Akim and Vicki (MVP Leads) to say thanks for the work we do,  but more importantly a way for people of different disciplines and social networks to get together and socialise.   Timing for this event was great,  I was able to demonstrate SharePoint 2010 to a fairly big audience and from the feedback I got I think people were impressed.

SUGUK Manchester

On Tuesday 10th November Mark Stokes has arranged the first official North West SUGUK event where we will be talking about all things SharePoint 2010 and also getting feedback on what the community wants from the user group – it’s your opportunity to really have a say on how the community works in your area.    Currently the event is full,  if you still want to attend please respond to the post on SUGUK but we may have to have bouncers on the door     – needless to say we will be continuing the conversation over a SharePint after the event.

SharePoint Conference Slovenia

The 27th November sees the second Slovenia SharePoint Conference, having never travelled to this part of the world I thought it would be a great way to visit, enjoy some local beers over the obligatory SharePint.   The timing of the event is great as it allows people to get hands on with the SharePoint 2010 bits (hopefully they will be out by then).

Training

Having guest taught a number of SharePoint training courses for Combined Knowledge over the past few years,  and having spent time helping review the 2010 courses I am going to be in Ullesthorpe for the week of the 30th of November for the first SharePoint 2010 Beta Developer Track.  If you are looking for an early insight and training in the latest platform get in touch with Zoe and see if she can fit you in. 

SharePint

Do I really need to say anymore?   At any event or during ant trip I will be looking to take part or organise a SharePint where we can talk about SharePoint over a Pint.   I’m preferring good local brewed ales lately so recommendations always welcome

Having authored this post I think I really need to offer an apology as it does seem like a little bit of self promotion,  it is not meant to be – more like I’m going to be here, would love to meet up.

The End of 2009 is going to be the start of things to come in 21apps,  I am really excited about the changes taking place and look forward telling you more.   Rest assured that I will be blogging more technical stuff and providing more information on how to improve the way you develop your SharePoint projects.  

2009 has been good 2010 is going to be awesome

A big pat on the back for Alex Pearce and Richard Willis for organising the first every Microsoft Learning Gateway conference that took place on last week.  With such a focused topic as SharePoint in Education it was amazing too see that there were over 150 people packing out the two session rooms.

As promised I have uploaded my slide deck to Slideshare.  I have also included the option to download the original PowerPoint presentation as some of you may want to use this to discuss your own SharePoint deployments.

I do plan to do a screen cast of the presentation later in the year to provide some background for those that were unable to make it.     If you didn’t attend and you didn’t follow the torrent of tweets I did during the day you can see them here http://search.twitter.com/search?q=lgcuk

During these challenging financial times tough questions are asked of everyone;  project budgets are cut and more focus is placed on the Return on Investment.  If you planning to deploy SharePoint or have already deployed you will be aware of some the challenges you will face.

Whether you’re a CIO, Project Manager, Developer or Information Worker you will need to consider what influence you can have.  At the top of your list should be to spend a few days at the Best Practices™ SharePoint Conference in San Diego, CA.  

What is it?
This conference goes beyond the how-to’s of SharePoint and delves into real world issues facing successful SharePoint implementations. Learn how to:

• Make consistent, confident decisions at every level, across your enterprise.
• Break the cycle of avoidance, disagreement and ignorance that leads to subpar results.
• Eliminate design, deployment, organizational and administrative confusion.
• Apply effective SharePoint decision-making in any situation and in turn enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and efficiency – while significantly lowering cost.
• Replace disorder with clarity, direction and confidence.

Who should attend?
The conference sessions are divided into 6 tracks in order to accommodate topics for SharePoint professionals at every level:

• IT Pro
• Developers and Designers
• Information Worker
• Information Architect/Taxonomist
• Project Manager
• Chief Information Officer

21apps is proud to have SharePoint MVP Andrew Woodward speaking at the conference on Agile development with Scrum and Test Driven SharePoint Development.   And if you have any really tough question he will be sitting on that Developers Expert Panel!

DEV338, Agile SharePoint development with Scrum – Andrew Woodward

Provide an introduction to Agile development using Scrum and discuss how the iterative approach to development helps the customer to get the solution they want. Look at how this approach works when applied to SharePoint projects, how it helps leverage more of the core platform and focuses effort on the biggest value areas. We will look at the challenges this brings to your development team by doing early integration, dealing with upgrades and changes and understand how addressing the hard things early is the right approach. We will also discuss how Scrum gives visibility of the project and brings both good and bad news. How getting customer engagement is the primary challenge and how the flexible approach is often at odds with the way work is contracted.

DEV371, Test Driven SharePoint Development – Andrew Woodward

Provide an introduction to Test Driven Development (TDD), how TDD influences you design enhances the quality of the developed solution. We will look at the challenges faced in doing Unit Testing in a SharePoint environment and look at mocking out the core SharePoint object model elements using the new Typemock Isolator APIs. We will discuss some of the way you can approach TDD in your environment and the challenges you are like to face.

DEV249, Developers Experts Panel – Todd Bleeker, Brad Smith, Robert Bogue, Francis Cheung, Andrew Woodward.

Best Practices™ SharePoint Conference
Hilton La Jolla, Torrey Pines, San Diego, CA, USA

February 2 – 4, 2009

Sign up now!

Coming to the Europe – April 6-8

For those of you in Europe and having a hard time justifying the costs of going to the USA, the Best Practices™ SharePoint Conference is coming to London, UK. And with the way the British Pound is fairing against the Euro at the moment this is going to be impossible to justify NOT coming.

There are already some great speakers lined up from Europe and a few of the very best from the USA including Joel Oleson, Andrew Connell and Ben Curry.

European Best Practices™ SharePoint Conference
Westminster, London, UK

April 6 – 8, 2009

Sign up early!