Michael Carducci

VDD: Value Driven Development 10 Golden Rules for incremental Greatness

7:30 PM MDT

On the NFJS tour, there are questions that seem to come up again and again. One common example is “How do we determine which new tools and technologies we should focus our energy on learning?” another is “How do we stop management from forcing us to cut corners on every release so we can create better and more maintainable code?” which, after awhile becomes “How can we best convince management we need to rewrite the business application?”

There is a single metaanswer to all these questions and many others.

It begins with the understanding that what we as engineers value, and what the business values are often very different (even if the ultimate goals are the same) By being able to understand these different perspectives it's possible to begin to frame our arguments around the needs and the wants of the business. This alone will make any engineer significantly more effective.

This session picks up from where “Stop writing code and start solving problems” stops discussing what is value, how do we align the values of the business with the needs and values of the engineer.

The Linked Data Revolution is here, are you ready?

9:00 AM MDT

The web is arguably the single most impactful revolution in human history (to date). By agreeing on a simple set of standards, we have collectively unlocked all the world's information. Documents can be discovered, retrieved, published, and shared so easily we don't even think about it.

Data, on the other hand, is a different story. Our data remains stuck in the 1980s. Locked in silos, each with a different format, interface, and conventions that must be interpreted by a human, parsed, mapped, and converted. Data is at the heart of many problems we solve today, and we produce data exponentially faster than we can consume it.

Today I can request any document from any server on the web. I need to know nothing about the underlying technology the server uses, nothing about how the information is stored or retrieved, and consume it instantly. We've been evolving those same capabilities with data over the past 20 years and the standards, tools, and technologies are reaching critical mass. The linked data revolution is now one that you can no longer ignore. Join us to see what you've been missing.

Completely Rewritten for 2023

Understanding Resource-Oriented Architecture

11:00 AM MDT

Although the Resource-Oriented Architecture is one of the oldest and most successful distributed architectures, it remains poorly understood and often completely overlooked today.

Much of the microservices architecture pattern is focused on taking applications apart although seemingly everyone has different ideas on how to put things back together again.

In this session, we will start with a summary of the resource-oriented architecture along with it's strengths and weaknesses. Michael will share hard-earned, real-world experience applying ROA concepts to complex microservice environments to successfully build an infinitely scalable, extensible, and understandable system.

Mob Mentality Collaborative coding and problem solving

1:30 PM MDT

Mob Programming is a style of programming in which the entire team sits together and
works on a single task at a time. Teams that have worked this way have found that
many of the problems that plague normal development just melted away, possibly because communication and learning increases. Teams also find that the quality of their code increases. They find their capacity to create increases. However, the best part of all this is that teams end up being happier and more cohesive.

In this session we introduce the core concepts of mob programming and then get handson mobbing on a coding kata.

An Architect's Approach to API Strategies

3:15 PM MDT

Integration, once a luxury, is now a necessity. Doing this well, however, continues to be elusive. Early attempts to build better distributed systems such as DCOM, CORBA, and SOAP were widely regarded as failures. Today the focus is on REST, RPC, and graphql style APIs.

Which is best? The goto answer for architects is, of course, “it depends.”

In this session, we look at the various API approaches, how they attempt to deal with the challenge of decoupling client from server, evolvability, extensibility, adaptability, composability.

The biggest challenge is that needs change over time, and APIs must necessarily evolve. Versioning is challenging, and breaking changes are inevitable. You'll leave this session with a highlevel understanding of these approach, their respective tradeoffs and ultimately how to align your API approach with your architectural and organizational goals.

Six Essential Soft Skills for the Software Architect

5:00 PM MDT

The difference between a junior and a senior dev isn't coding skills. A developer's coding skills are just their ante; necessary to get into the game but, like an ante, they only get you into the game.

Everything that happens from that point on depends on what else you bring to the table.
In this session, we explore the key skills necessary to make an impact, be effective, and will ultimately pave the way to grow into senior/principal level developers and architects.

The Influential Engineer Overcoming resistance to change

8:30 AM MDT

By the end of this conference you will have learned many new tools and technologies. The easy part is done, now for the hard part: getting the rest of the teamand managementon board with the new ideas. Easier said than done.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or are simply asking for better tools; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is just the beginning. How can you dramatically increase your odds of success?

You will learn 12 concrete strategies to build consensus within your team as well as 6 technique to dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests.

As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that neccessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

In this session we discuss strategies for getting your team on board as well as when/how to approach management within the department and also higherup in the organization.

Influential Engineer Part 2 Persuasion Patterns

10:30 AM MDT

In Part 1, you learned the core principles of influence and persuasion. How to we take this back to the office and apply what we've learned?

We dive deep in to specific strategies to get both the team and the business on board with your ideas and solutions. We cover several realworld patterns you can follow to be more effective and more persuasive. Part 1 was conceptual, part 2 is practical.