SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

Visit socratesuk.org/training_day... or socratesuk.org/index.html to find out more.

SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

We ALSO have:

@emilybache.com - Approval Testing
Lisi Hocke - Secure Development
Gemma Cameron - User Stories
@claresudbery.bsky.social - TDD with LLMs
Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce - Extreme Refactoring
Tim Ottinger - Value Stream Mapping (@agile-otter.bsky.social)

These days Duncan is mostly retired, but still produces a weekly YouTube video on something that interests him. He has tried almost anything in his quest for better software, including, but not limited to, actually talking to people.

Duncan was lucky enough to be an early adopter of Object Oriented programming, which was the gateway drug to patterns, Extreme Programming, agile and lean. He coauthored Java to Kotlin: A Refactoring Guidebook, published by O’Reilly.

Nat enjoys sharing programming tips, tricks and techniques. He co-authored the books "Java to Kotlin: A Refactoring Guidebook" and "Growing Object­-Oriented Software Guided by Tests".

Duncan McGregor has been a professional software developer for 35 years.

Duncan has a theory that Snake could be really pure, with only the single side effect of drawing the game state to the screen. Let’s refactor to find out.

Nat Pryce has been programming for \<coughty-cough\> years, across many languages, platforms, application domains and industries.

Join Nat and Duncan in this two-hour workshop where we’ll let the AI do the initial grunt work so that we have more time to polish. First we’ll generate a game of snake; maybe even the tests. We could ship that, but it’s beneath us. How good could the code be?

This is SoCraTes. We’re all about the craft. But for some reason the code generated by guessing the next thing the average developer would type doesn’t meet our standards. And sometimes we just like to have a bit of fun.

Where else could get in-person teaching from world-renowned trainers? The @SoCraTes UK CIC unconference’s Training Day (in the UK near London from June 18th, links in comments) includes Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce, with their session “I Suppose This Is My Life Now - Mercilessly Refactoring AI Code”.

SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

Visit socratesuk.org/training_day... to find out more.

SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

We ALSO have:

@emilybache.com - Approval Testing
Lisi Hocke - Secure Development
Gemma Cameron - Bringing User Stories to Life
@claresudbery.bsky.social - TDD with LLMs
Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce - Extreme Refactoring
@agile-otter.bsky.social - Value Stream Mapping

Jon's the co-author (with @Olve Maudal) of the Deep C/C++ slide deck (over 1,000,000 views)
He's the ex ECMA Task Group 2 C# convenor.
He's had some C# books published.
He's the ex @ACCU Conference chairman.
He loves coarse fishing and salmon fishing.
He lives in Somerset, England.

cyber-dojo Free Online Coding Dojo

Jon built Cyber-dojo.org to promote deliberate practice for software developers.
He was a self-employed consultant for 20+ years. He's worked with Accenture, Aviva, Cisco, Ericsson, Friends Provident, HP, Microsoft, Opera, Ordnance Survey, RBS, Reuters, Renault F1, Schlumberger, Tandberg and more.

cyber-dojo Free Online Coding Dojo

Jon Jagger is head of software at Kosli. He specialises in practice, process, test driven development, and complex-adaptive systems-thinking.
He's 39 years old (hex) and has loved software since he was 10 (decimal).

cyber-dojo Free Online Coding Dojo

You will be using the innovative, open source, browser based Cyber-dojo.org which provides a highly effective environment designed specifically for reflection and improvement. This is a hands-on intense but fun workshop. There are no slides.

@SoCraTes UK CIC Training Day: We now have a full programme of content from eight amazing trainers! Our day will start with @Jon Jagger, with his session “TDD Game with Cyber-Dojo”.

You will be practicing test driven development away from the pressures of getting things done.

SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

Visit socratesuk.org/training_day... or socratesuk.org/index.html to find out more.

SoCraTes UK - Training Day Are you new to the software industry, and want to get a head start? Have you been practicing for a while, but always thought there had to be some deeper method to it? Have you heard about test-driven…

We ALSO have:

@emilybache.com - Approval Testing
Lisi Hocke - Secure Development
Gemma Cameron - User Stories
@claresudbery.bsky.social - TDD with LLMs
Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce - Extreme Refactoring
Tim Ottinger - Value Stream Mapping (@agile-otter.bsky.social)

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

Alongside her consulting work, she writes about engineering culture, hiring, and team development on rubygem.blog

If that doesn't interest you, she has a whole cheese joke routine and a wealth of ferret facts.

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

Gemma has been an active member of the UK tech community for over a decade, speaking at SPAConf, Agile Mcr, DDD Europe & more.

She focuses on bridging the gap between business and engineering, with a particular interest in people, ways of working, and making complex ideas practical and usable.

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

Bring a few of your own users' stories and we’ll bring them to life in a very short amount of time, with no drawing skills required!

Gemma Cameron is a tech and business consultant, software developer, and experienced speaker based in Manchester.

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

How can you build a system for them that helps rather than hinders in their workflow? How can you plan your system for when things go wrong?

We've got a fun thing for you to try in this workshop: Comics!

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

User stories have become boring tasks written in gherkin syntax. How can the ideas and feelings be shared in such a simple way that even your family and friends will understand your product and its benefits? How can you understand the context the user is operating in?

Gemma Cameron Tech and Business Consultant

The hardest thing about software development is sharing ideas and understanding your users. What are we making, who is it for, what problems do they currently have, how can we fix them, how will they feel? What could go wrong for them?

The Training Day is back! The @socratesuk.bsky.social ‘26 unconference is in the UK near London from June 18th (links in thread), and we’re excited to announce we will be joined by Gemma Cameron, with her session “Hands-on: Bringing User Stories to Life”.

Training day:

@emilybache.com - Approval Testing
Lisi Hocke - Secure Development
Gemma Cameron - User Stories
@claresudbery.bsky.social - TDD with LLMs
Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce - Extreme Refactoring
Tim Ottinger - Value Stream Mapping (@agile-otter.bsky.social)

...and we can now confirm that Gemma Cameron will be running a workshop on bringing user stories to life, using comics!

#SoftwareCraft
#Unconference
#OpenSpace
#TDD
#Refactoring

We organise in the open, and you're very welcome to chat with the organisers to help, ask questions, give feedback, or simply watch. You can reach us on the #ev_socratesuk slack channel (slack.softwarecrafters.org), or on mastodon, LinkedIn, BlueSky, or by emailing organisers at socratesuk dot org.

Can you help? We’re a not-for-profit community event (and very cute - just sayin’) so we need help with ticket sales and sponsorship. Share this post with your networks, and ask your employer / contacts about sponsorship or buying tickets as brilliant training opportunities for employees.