Dealing with Technical Debt in Legacy Software

Location:Microsoft Technology Center; Stonebridge Plaza One; 9606 North Mopac, Suite 200, Austin TX, 78759

Is your codebase getting harder and harder to modify? Do you find yourself and your team making quick fixes to meet a deadline that you know you will never get back to? Is your ability to add new features that work well with the existing system decreasing every day? Have you thought that it might be easier to just start from scratch? All of these are common symptoms of increasing technical debt in your software.

By attending this session you will learn :
1) How to write tests for legacy software every day without the need to stop delivering business value to your customer.
2) How to break dependencies and incrementally make your software more amenable to change.
3) How to create an environment where developers want to write tests early and often.
4) How to start digging yourself out of technical debt.

Ashley Johnson is a co-founder and partner at Gemba Systems LLC, a firm dedicated to helping product development groups improve their throughput and quality of life through the adoption of agile development methods. In this role, his time is split between understanding the challenges that companies face, and consulting with senior IT management to facilitate organizational optimization.

Ashley has served on the APLN Board of Directors because he views agile leadership as an individual and collaborative journey rather than a corporate end. Ashley has personally coached many clients - from medium-sized private firms to fortune 500 public corporations - through the challenges of agile, iterative and lean product development. He has taught, coached, and consulted with thousands of individuals at various organizations such as Xerox, JPMorganChase, Southwest Airlines and many others.
Cost: Free
Contact: www.AgileAustin.org or info@AgileAustin.org
Proof of Attendance forms will be provided for PMI (PDU), ASQ (RU) and NPDM (PDH) re-certifications