Agile 2009 has ended. More than 1300 people and around 300 presentations went through the four days the conference lasted. Next are the highlights and a brief summary of the sessions I enjoyed mostly.
Highlights:
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The city of Chicago. Although it wasn't my first time in the windy city, I really enjoyed being there for a second time. I hope I will have the chance to go back soon.
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Alistair Cockburn's entree. The bagpipe show and his Shakespeare's performance made a great entrance. The keynote is available at InfoQ.
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Jared M. Spool's keynote. Besides being very a interesting presentation, he was really funny. More of a standup show than a keynote presentation.
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VersionOne cruise. I was one of the lucky ones who had the chance to take VersionOne cruise and appreciate the beautiful view of Chicago's skyline at night.
My favorite sessions
Using the agile testing quadrants to plan your testing efforts - Janet Gregory
The session was an interesting summary of the chapter "The Agile Testing Quadrants" from Janet and Lisa's latest book "Agile Testing" (which I am currently reading).
Integration Tests are a Scam - J.B. Rainsberger
The session was well presented, just by using a flip-chart without any projector or other electronic support. Although the main argument of the presentation is well known (unit tests should be isolated, use dependency injection and test doubles to enforce isolation), the idea of collaboration vs contract tests was interesting. The presentation is available at InfoQ.
Clean code III: functions - Robert C. Martin
It was the first time I've seen a presentation from Uncle Bob. You can certainly tell he has been doing this stuff for a long time and he knows what it is about.
Esther and Diana's Excellent retrospective adventures - Esther Derby, Diana Larsen
The session started with a fun team exercise and we use the experience to go through all the different retrospective stages and activities.
Finally, some nice pictures from Chicago and the conference:
