The upcoming Agile Africa conference in Johannesburg will feature a Code Sparring Tournament, where coders get to practice their skills by competing head-to-head with fellow coders in a test of programming and problem solving skills.
The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University is gearing up for its third annual Agile Africa conference from 24 to 26 August 2015. Headline speakers include renowned Agile expert Kent Beck, ThoughtWorks Chief Technology Officer Dr Rebecca Parsons, and software gurus Aslam Khan, Paul E McMahon and Doug Bradbury.
“We are very lucky to have Doug Bradbury, Director of Software Services for 8th Light in Chicago, host the Code Sparring tournament,” says JCSE director Professor Barry Dwolatzky. “Doug helped 8th Light develop and refine its modern apprenticeship program, and has mentored several apprentices into successful software careers.”
Dwolatzky says that there are also five workshops from which to choose, covering topics such as user-centred design, and how to cope with agile and change. Topics include The New Essence: A Thinking Framework To Power Software Development Team Performance, by Paul E McMahon.
“We have 25 talks and poster sessions ranging from adopting agile in corporate environments to dealing with conflict in agile teams, agile on steroids, real agile quality, agile analyst mind sets and more,” says Dwolatzky. “Agile Africa 2015 is going to be the best yet and anyone who has an interest in agile needs to attend.”
Agile Africa 2015 is a major highlight on the JCSE calendar. It aims to cover as many aspects of agile, while providing excellent networking sessions with some leading agile experts.
It also marks the beginning of the Fak’ugesi Festival, a 3-week programme of everything digital that takes place in and around Braamfontein.