October, 2003
Thank You Scott Ambler!

From Agile Modeling to Agile Database Techniques
 
Tuesday October 14th,  5:30-8:00PM
The Hartford Insurance Company
 
Scott Ambler,
Senior Consultant, Ronin International    Download his Meeting Slides
 
Anyone familiar with Scott Ambler's articles, white papers, and books will know that he has gained a wealth of real-world experience over the years and is not at all afraid to voice his opinion.

This was especially true at this meeting, where the very animated Scott covered dozens of points in the effective development of software systems. Many of these points were quite familiar to the audience, such as the use of incremental development techniques as opposed to serial, and some were still a bit controversial, such as the disdain for expensive modeling tools and the recommendation to avoid specialization as a software professional.

Some quotes:
"Documentation for documentation's sake has no value; before developing any artifact, be sure it has business value and that there is not a better, less formal way to understand what needs to be understood",
"There's nothing wrong with sophisticated tools, as long as they're the simplest tools that get the job done. Few tools actually seem to fall into this category."
"Smaller teams staffed with 'generalizing specialists' who stay with a project for its duration are an important way to reduce project failure and achieve great results".
Scott observed that PMI folks had a difficult time with such agile concepts!  See "Agile Models Distilled" for more.

Scott also covered some of the material in his new book Agile Database Techniques, such as database refactoring and techniques for data professionals and developers to work together effectively. Data modelers and object modelers need to understand and respect each others unique perspectives in order to improve the way they collaborate. It is possible, in fact very desirable, for data professionals to be active and valuable members on agile software development projects -- but they must choose to adopt new ways of working that fit into the evolutionary approach typical of modern development processes.

This was a very interactive session in which Scott discussed many leading-edge concepts regarding software development. Although you really had to be there for the experience, you can still benefit from reading his meeting slides and following his references.  Scott has been a very prolific - and very clear - writer.
 
Scott Ambler is a Senior Consultant with Ronin International, Inc. since its inception in 1999. He actively works with Ronin clients on large-scale software development projects and on software process improvement (SPI) efforts around the world.
Scott is Canadian and still lives in Canada although he spends a large portion of his time consulting in the United States and Europe. He has worked in the IT industry since the mid 1980s and with object technology since the early 1990s. He has written several books and white papers on object-oriented software development, software process, Agile Modeling (AM), Agile Database Techniques, the Enterprise Unified Process (EUP), and other topics.
Scott is a Senior Contributing Editor with Software Development magazine and a member of the Flashline Software Development Productivity Council.

Book Door Prize Bonanza!  We gave away nineteen book door prizes courtesy Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, and Ronin International..


Reported by Terry McAuliffe