Dallas CSharp SIG

Dallas C# SIG June Meeting: Agile Software Development – End to End

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:59:02 +0000

Abstract

A lot of IT people are talking about “Agile” these days. But do they really know what it means to be agile? And more importantly, do you know what it could mean for your job, your career, your company? As software developers, agile practices are having a great impact on how we build software and promise to greatly improve the quality of our work.

This talk begins with the agile mindset, demonstrates pragmatic agile software development practices, and explores the impact that agile methods can have on any software project. If you’ve never heard of “agile” before, you’ll learn from the ground up. If you’ve always wondered what it really means, you’ll come away with a crystalized understanding. And if you’re familiar with the concepts, you’ll see techniques in action, from customer conversation to product delivery, and understand with renewed clarity where our industry is headed with process improvement.

Bio

Todd Girvin co-founded Improving Enterprises in August, 2004 and now heads the company’s Microsoft Technology Practice. He is a long-time entrepreneur and consultant, architecting and building software systems, coaching and training scores of companies in agile methods and developer best practices. Mr. Girvin contributes to the technical direction of Improving and to the developer community at large through public speaking and co-organizing AgileDotNet, and by consulting with customers regarding business, technology, and team solutions.

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG May meeting: Distributing asynchronous background tasks with Topshelf and NServiceBus

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:07:45 +0000

Abstract
In this session Leblanc will show you the ins and outs on Topshelf and NServiceBus and how to leverage these tools to help you scale. Topshelf makes window services easy to build and test. NServiceBus helps you queue, distribute, and process asynchronous background tasks. Get a glimpse at the black magic Leblanc uses on a day to day basis.

Bio
Leblanc is an micropreneur and technical lead capable of building teams and bringing multi-tenant SaaS products to market. Leblanc has years of industry experience in all aspects of the application life cycle management. He has gathered and managed requirements, and demonstrated his object-oriented architecture design with many UML and ER diagrams. Leblanc has also established his implementation abilities with various languages and platforms, generally using a test-driven development approach, and always using continuous integration process to improve quality and reduce time to market.Leblanc has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from Texas A&M University.Leblanc is Co-Founder of improvingrestaurants.com and Founder of robusthaven.com.

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza
6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation
8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG April meeting: UI Test Automation with Selenium

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:59:56 +0000

Abstract

Say “UI Test Automation” while playing a word association game and the other party will inevitably say “Hard!”. And yet without the UI tests your safety net is never complete, and manual testing of UIs on Firefox, Chrome and various flavors of IE will slow down your development. As we discovered UI tests are not hard, they just require a shift in mindset.

In this session, you will learn Selenium WebDriver C# API and design patterns to write reliable tests. We will show how to distribute tests across multiple VMs. And to wrap up you will learn to design your test classes in a Fluent fashion that will make your developers and QA department excited about UI test automation. At the end the group will be rewarded by a sight of a mouse and keyboard working by themselves, testing the UI automatically while we are relaxing with a pizza.

Bio

Sergey Rathon is a Principal Consultant at Improving Enterprises. His career has taken him through a diverse set of industries: 3D Rendering done in Irix/C++, Geo-information systems in Delphi, router test tools in C# and Web UIs in C#, ASP.NET MVC, Javascript, and a diverse set of roles: from QA engineer to a lead of a large software project to Principal Engineer. Scars from his days in management made Sergey an enthusiastic supporter of Agile methodologies, including Scrum and TDD. Outside of work Sergey can be found watching a movie with his son and daughter, or riding his motorcycle hundreds of miles away from home in a pursuit to visit all 50 states on a bike.

Ian Henehan is a Senior Consultant at Improving Enterprises. He got his start doing electrical and control design for LCD manufacturing machines. He eventually joined the Intel Architecture Labs as an integration and test engineer, building a wide array of specialized test equipment and software. This experience led to an interest in team process and how to minimize the friction it can create for producing results. A three year stint with the Educational Technology group at Texas Instruments allowed him to concentrate on test frameworks and integration with build systems. This resulted in a broader understanding of the problem space that available frameworks tried to solve and also building a couple new tool sets from scratch. Since joining Improving, he has had the opportunity to continue work in this area and gets to design tools for highly integrated build, test and deployment solutions.

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG Mar meeting: Ruby to dynamic C#

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:24:18 +0000

Abstract

Amir Rajan will talk about powerful dynamic constructs in Ruby and how similar features can be created using dynamic C# (no prior knowledge of Ruby is required).

Bio

Amir is a Principal Consultant with Improving Enterprises. He is an active member of the .NET Community and has done presentations on ASP.NET MVC, HTML5, REST Architectures, and Silverlight/WP7. Amir has an unwavering passion for software and is always striving to better the industry through community involvement, mentoring, and blogging. His blog is at http://www.amirrajan.net/.

Schedule

Date: Mar 01, 2012

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG Feb meeting: Introduction to Git

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:21:13 +0000

Abstract

Always checking out the newest shiny thing?? Distributed version control (DVCS) is spreading like wildfire across the .NET ecosystem but is really all that beneficial or is it just hype?? Having worn a tarnish into this tool using it for the past couple of year, I’m going to discuss the benefits and battles of using it in your everyday developer life. We will be taking a look at how Git achieves it’s “magic” as well as run thru some standard practices to hopefully help you determine if Git would be right for and your environment.

Bio

Like every geek who grew up in the 80’s, David O’Hara distinctly remembers getting his first computer – an Atari 800XL. It absorbed every ounce of free time, especially late at night, but taught him BASIC. After many years and several languages, he now spends most of his days working in .NET but still has a special place for late night coding sessions.

Since having an “agile awakening” a few years ago, he has a distinct need to grow in new directions and surround himself with smart people who will help him to shape this knowledge and practices. He has found Improving Enterprises to be a place filled with people who share similar ideas and values as well as his passion for learning and passing on that knowledge.

David is passionate about software craftsmanship, startups, and personal productivity. He was given the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for ASP.NET in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Schedule

Date: Feb 02, 2012

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG Jan meeting: What Client-Side MV* Frameworks Can Do For You

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:42:45 +0000

Abstract

Client-side MVC frameworks like Spine.js, Backbone.js, Knockout.js and Ember.js are there to help you write richer client-side web experiences and give you solid patterns to follow. Come learn why they can help, how these frameworks work and what some of the existing options are.

Bio

Eric Sowell is an avid .NET developer who gets into as many technologies as he can though with a focus on the web. He is the development lead for Match.com on the international platform and enjoys writing code which serves up Html millions of times on a daily basis. Eric is the father of three children and the husband of one wife. He also has fish. When not being a geek or hanging with the family, he enjoys reading, writing and doing research primarily in the realms of technical things, ancient Greek, biblical studies and early Christianity. You can see Eric’s activities online by visiting http://ericsowell.com or by following him on Twitter (@mallioch).

Schedule

Date: Jan 05, 2012

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes

Dallas C# SIG Dec meeting: Code First Development with Entity Framework

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:03:01 +0000

Abstract
In this talk we dive into the code first approach using Entity Framework and specifically how to develop test first and architecturally sound EF code. This talk will morph and twist, so bring your questions and plenty of geek points.

Bio
Devlin Liles is a Principal Consultant at Improving Enterprises. Since 2007 he has been presenting on software development practices and tools to audiences around the Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. He is a regular regional presenter at user groups and events. He founded an internal Corporate Software Craftsmanship conference in Northwest Arkansas as well as led the Tyson User group for a year and a half. He is an avid soccer player and hobbyist gamer.

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza
6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation
8:30 p.m: Door prizes

Dallas C# SIG Nov meeting: Cancelled due to Improving Company retreat

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:43:28 +0000

There will be no meeting in November, as most Improving folks will be in Vegas for the company retreat on Nov 3. See you in December.

Dallas C# SIG Oct meeting: Envision. Explore. Evolve – Ideas to Prototypes in minutes using SketchFlow

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:35:40 +0000

Abstract
SketchFlow (included with Expression Blend) is a great tool to build rapid click-through prototypes of your ideas before they bloom into powerful applications. Explore different variations of the ideas without investing too much of your time. Get instant feedback from your clients who can play with your high-fidelity prototypes using the free Sketchflow Player. And best of all, you don’t have to throw away your work. Grab the reusable assets and use them in your production application.
In this session, we’ll take an idea and check out a live demonstration on how quickly we can build a prototype out of it. This will be fun.

Bio
Girish Gangadharan is about to be a dad and is super excited about it. He’s also excited about writing awesome code (read: code built on S.O.L.I.D principles), to solve business problems.
He has about 7 years of experience building software for clients ranging all the way from small mom & pop shops to multi billion dollar corporations. And for people that believe in certifications, well, he has a bunch of those too (Transcript ID: 802296 Access code: 15963282).
He spends a lot of time thinking, studying and researching about building better UX for software applications. He loves to write clean, concise, well-commented, beautiful code that not only solves the problem in hand but also is a pleasure to support & maintain.
He wrote Sass For Visual Studio, Select Search and also the man behind the huge UX initiative at his company (uxd.absg.com).
He blogs at giri.sh. You should follow him on Twitter - @appoosa.

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza
6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation
8:30 p.m: Door prizes

Dallas C# SIG Sep meeting: Connect with your Kinect

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:05:40 +0000

Abstract

The Microsoft Kinect peripheral is the fastest selling gadget of all time, selling more than 9,000,000 units in its first 60 days. With the release of the Windows SDK beta for Kinect, there has never been a better time to learn about this new and innovative peripheral and explore where your imagination takes you.

This C# code focused session will dive into how to use the API to do some wicked cool things. We’ll start by exploring the RGB and depth streams and then explore the skeletal tracking API. Next we’ll combine the different camera facets of the Kinect into a single demo. Next we’ll turn our focus to the Kinect’s audio features and take a look at Kinect’s high quality audio capabilities. To wrap up, we’ll combine all of these different features into one awesome demo.

Bio

Justin Weinberg is a manager consultant with the Microsoft Enterprise practice at Sogeti and a cofounder of the North Texas Silverlight User Group. Justin brings over 10 years of development experience to bear with a focus on .NET, C#,and XAML. He is also a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). Justin obtained Bachelor degrees in Information Decision Systems and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University where the school colors are indeed plaid. When not writing code or engaging with other user groups in the community, Justin spends time with his wonderful wife and three rambunctious boys. You can read his blog at www.codeconfessions.com

Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 p.m : Networking/Pizza

6:30 – 8:30 p.m : Main Presentation

8:30 p.m : Door Prizes