I am scheduled to speak at Microsoft Tech Ed Middle East in Dubai in March 2011. My sessions are being finalized but most likely it will be around Windows Server AppFabric and WCF with focus on the enterprise development stories.

Microsoft; Dubai; Tech-Ed;

Here is the slide deck from my yesterday’s presentationat TechEd.

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I just quickly wanted to write down a brief introduction to my ‘Combating Software Entropy‘ at Tech-Ed Middle East 2010

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Yesterday, 10th Feb 2010, i was invited to speak at a Techies UG event, here in Dubai, UAE.

I started off the discussion with defining the practice of refactoring and i quoted Martin Fowler’s blog as following

•Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior.

•Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations.

•Each transformation (called a ‘refactoring’) does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring.

After this we moved on to the best practices for refactoring classes. Following is a list that we discussed:-

• Comments
• Long Method
• Long Parameter List
• Duplicate Code
• Large Class
• Type Embedded In Name
• Un Communicative Names
• Inconsistent Names
• Speculative Generality

The session was very intense with everyone chipping in with their comments and i thoroughly enjoyed hosting it. Towards the end Anton and I wrote couple of code snippets to check the Andrew idea of using Interfaces (more on it later on). Rolf also chipped in with his comments and critiques. Notable absentees were Ron and Zubair and it would have been much more fun had they attended the event.

ps: watch out this post for snaps from the event.

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Yesterday, 10th Feb 2010, i was invited to speak at a Techies UG event, here in Dubai, UAE.

I started off the discussion with defining the practice of refactoring and i quoted Martin Fowler’s blog as following

•Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior.

•Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations.

•Each transformation (called a ‘refactoring’) does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring.

After this we moved on to the best practices for refactoring classes. Following is a list that we discussed:-

• Comments
• Long Method
• Long Parameter List
• Duplicate Code
• Large Class
• Type Embedded In Name
• Un Communicative Names
• Inconsistent Names
• Speculative Generality

The session was very intense with everyone chipping in with their comments and i thoroughly enjoyed hosting it. Towards the end Anton and I wrote couple of code snippets to check the Andrew idea of using Interfaces (more on it later on). Rolf also chipped in with his comments and critiques. Notable absentees were Ron and Zubair and it would have been much more fun had they attended the event.

ps: watch out this post for snaps from the event.

Edit#1: Rolf’s blog post on the event is live http://techiesleaders.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!50531D3D6442376A!214.entry

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Are you speaking at Tech-Ed Middle East?

Are you attending Tech-Ed Middle East?

Would you like to come to Tech-Ed Middle East?

Are you considering coming to Tech-Ed Middle East?

Doesn’t matter, use this kit and show your love!

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So here’s the second part of the Tech-Ed Middle East Series. I have some really exciting updates for all of you.

Great Speakers:-
In my last post i shared an exciting speaker lineup with you. Guess what, the best just got better. Now we have added Eric Rudder, Somasegar and Scott Hanselman’s to make this a stellar lineup for first ever Tech Ed Middle East event.

Eric, Soma and Scott all are big names and I expect their sessions to be jam packed. If you are coming to the event (and why shouldn’t you) then you should be looking at the agenda and organizing your sessions as soon as possible.
You can also take a look at running order of the event here.

Great Content:-
There are 96 sessions distributed under 18 tracks. Mix this with partner sessions and instructor led labs and you have a wealth of great technical content to choose from.Look out for some great keynotes and break out sessions.

Great Fun:-
Geeks want to have fun!

Here are couple of pointers that I would like to share with you all:-

Day 1: 1st March 2010
A day full of technical sessions will lead towards fun filled evening. In the evening, welcome reception will make way for some local cultural entertainment. This I am sure will dazzle visiting delegates.

To learn more visit these links:-
http://www.dubaiculture.ae/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kn3k0_tWjw

Day 2: 2nd March 2010
On the eve of Day 2, all the delegates will be invited to attend a party on the beach. Party will be divided in to two different areas:
- Chill out Zone
- Arabic Zone

There will be some fun filled entertainment to go along and i am not going to spoil the surprise right now. However i will be tweeting some factoids on official Tech Ed Twitter account.

That’s its for now, look out for couple of more exciting posts on Tech-Ed. Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions I would love to answer them.

Edit 1: Fixed the event dates.

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I am glad to share this with you all that I will be speaking at this year’s edition of Tech-Ed Middle East in Dubai, UAE. More details on the event itself are available at http://www.teched.ae/

My first session is confirmed I will be talking about ‘Combating Software Entropy with Design Patterns and Principals ‘.

My second session is still in the pipe-line and hopefully its going to be a panel discussion on ‘Agile Architecture’, more along the lines of my current discussion listed in this blog post

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Last week I was invited by @RolfEleveld to participate in an Agile development discussion for his user group (TechiesUG) event. It was fun sitting with a bunch of geeks and having an open discussion on what is Agile development and how to convince stake holders (including customers/senior managers) to adapt to it. During the discussion following questions were raised (specially by ZubairDotNet)…

- Which one is the best Agile APPROACH?
- How often should we do Code Reviews, Does it slow you down?
- How does Agile work for Consultancy scenarios?
- What if the client is not part of the team, who acts as a proxy in Agile team?
- Whats the role of an Architect in an Agile team?
- How does estimation work in an Agile practice?

Before I move on to answering these questions, to set the context right, i would like to bring your attention to “The Agile Manifesto“, it says:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

  Working software over comprehensive documentation

  Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

  Responding to change over following a plan

Now let me try and answer these questions, one by one:-

1- Which one is the best Agile APPROACH?
There are a bunch of available methodologies:-
Scrum
Extreme Programming (XP)
Agile Unified Process (AUP)
DSDM
Essential Unified Process (EssUP)
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
Open Unified Process (OpenUP)
Lean software development
etc.

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So those of you who follow me on twitter already know the updates that i have been pushing through on the biggest IT event in the Middle East, yes, you guessed it right, I am talking about Microsoft’s TechEd Middle East 2010.

I thought i should write a series of posts that would highlight the exciting developments and the build up right up to the event it self, scheduled for 1-3 of March 2010 in Dubai, UAE.

In the first post i am going to highlight the most important aspects of the event i.e. the content and the speakers.

Content:
Sessions at Tech-Ed ME is divied into following tracks:

• Architecture – ARC
• Business Intelligence – BIN
• Cloud Computing and Online Services – CCS
• Database Platform – DAT
• Developer Tools, Languages and Frameworks – DEV (11)
• IT Strategy and Business Alignment – ISB
• Management and Virtualization – MGV
• Windows Mobile – MOB
• Office and SharePoint – OFS
• Security, Identity and Access – SIA
• SOA and Business Processes – SOA
• Windows Server – SVR
• Unified Communications – UNC
• Windows Client – WCL
• Web and User Experience – WEB

This definately is a wide-range of categories, which means that there is something in it for all of us techies out there i.e. from Architecture enthsiast to the Sharepoint Junkie to the Security Geek, to the IT Guy, everyone seems to be covered. More importantly these tracks seem to cover the whole spectrum of IT landscape, and thats exactly how IT companies/Enterprises should look at this event i.e. they should see the value of sending their staff to this event.

I will drill down on some of the interesting tracks(obviously from my perspective) in the follow up posts, but for now, you can stay up-to-date visiting official track listing at Tech-Ed ME site @ http://www.teched.ae/technical-tracks.aspx

Speakers:

• Rafal Lukawiecki: In his role as Strategic Consultant at Project Botticelli Ltd Rafal is responsible for analysing and forecasting trends in the field of Information Technology.
• Aron Skonnard: Aaron Skonnard is a Microsoft MVP and 10-year columnist for MSDN Magazine as well as co-founder of Pluralsight, an industry think-tank focused on instructor-led training for Microsoft developers.
• Joel Oleson: Joel is a senior product manager and SharePoint evangelist at Quest where he is responsible for product direction and strategy. He is well known in the SharePoint community as an enthusiastic trainer, evangelist and architect and he maintains a popular blog.
• Jason Olson: Jason Olson is a Senior Technical Evangelist in the Developer & Platform Evangelism division at Microsoft, currently evangelizing Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.
• Andy Malone: Andy Malone is the CEO of Quality Training Ltd and founder of both the Dive Deeper Technology and Cybercrime Security events. Based in Scotland, Andy is a popular international event speaker and technology evangelist with over 15 years experience.
• John Craddock: John has designed and implemented computing systems ranging from high-speed industrial controllers through to distributed IT systems with a focus on security and high-availability. A key player in many IT projects for industry leaders including Microsoft, the UK Government and multi-nationals that require optimised IT systems.
• Amish Lukka: Amish is a Premier Field Engineer based in the UK. He has extensive experience working with large enterprise customers around the world providing reactive and proactive services. This includes resolving critical issues on Active Directory which on many occasions has included disaster recovery scenarios for large environments.

These are some of the best speakers of our industry, but if you ask me, my favourtie is Rafal. Having attended his key notes on couple of occassions i can guarantee you that you are going to love his insights on technology!

Obviously, this is not an extensive list and i will try to maintain this speaker list as and when new speakers are confirmed. In the meantime you can also check the line up @ http://www.teched.ae/speakers.aspx

Summary:

So far the content + speaker matrix is looking very interesting. If nothing else, i can promise you that this is going to get better from here on. So, look out for more interesting topics and big names in the industry to present them to you. Also, dont forget that Tech-Ed offers hands-on labs, and i am sure all of you geek-heads know that nothing beats the feeling of learning new things in hands-on lab. For more updates keep checking this page http://www.teched.ae/sessions-and-labs.aspx

Follow Tech-Ed ME’s official tweets @ http://twitter.com/TechEd_ME

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