I just got back from Kraków, Poland last week where I attended JDD 2012. While at the Java developers conference, I presented a talk called "When Should You Consider Meta-Architectures? Using Meta to Scale the Cloud." I also spoke on the subject, "Pragmatic, Not Dogmatic TDD: Rethinking How We Test" with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock.

I've just barely recovered from JDD and now I'm heading to Haifa, Israel. This is my first time in Israel so I'm excited about being there. While there, I'll be presenting a course on the subject of Test-Driven Development for a client of mine who maintains offices there. I've never been to Israel, so I'm excited take in some of the sites in Haifa and possibly Tel Aviv. If you'll be in the area and would like to get together, get ahold of me.

Just last Saturday, I returned from Dallas, Texas. Today, I leave for Penang, Malaysia! I was in Dallas attending Agile2012. While at the conference, I hosted a workshop with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock on the subject of Testing System Qualities. During the workshop, we showed how to write Quality Scenarios that emphasize architecture capabilities such as usability, security, performance, scalability, internationalization, availability, accessibility and the like.

We also collaborated on a lecture entitled Pragmatic, Not Dogmatic TDD: Rethinking How We Test. During the presentation, we challenged the "norm" for TDD. While we agree that testing should be an integral part of your daily programming practice, we believe that you don’t always need to derive your code via many test-code-revise-retest cycles to be test-driven.

I had great time at the conference and especially enjoyed meeting up with friends like Linda Rising and Jutta Eckstein.  

Next on the agenda is a trip to Penang, Malaysia.  I am excited to be making my first trip to Malaysia.  The purpose of my trip is to teach a course on Pragmatic Test Driven Development.  While there, I will be visiting with a friend and taking the time to do a bit of site seeing.  

I attended another Agile Portugal this year in beautiful Porto, Portugal. Pre-Conference started Thursday early evening with a talk and discussion about "Better Science Through Art", June 21st. That was followed by watching Portugal win the Euro 2012 quarterfinals.

On Friday, the conference started with many Open Spaces which lead to some great dialog about various topics. Saturday started with a talk from Richard P. Gabriel's entitled "Life in the Trampoline of Amnesia." After that I took part in several talks and speed-talks. In the afternoon, I gave my Keynote address entitled, "Pragmatic, Not Dogmatic TDD: Rethinking How We Test."

Saturday night was the night of the annual Festival of São João party in Porto...it has become a tradition for me. The music, lights, fireworks, and food are amazing every year. The real highlight of the event for me was getting to see my friends again, particularly Ademar Aguiar, Richard Gabriel, David West, and Peter Sommerlad. Richard, David, and I did some post-conference site-seeing. The convention really went by too fast, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

-Joseph Yoder, June 27, 2012