Coding the Architecture - londonusergroup tag

A developer's guide to load testing - video

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:27:51 GMT

Just a quickie ... the video from A developer's guide to load testing at Skills Matter last week is now available to view online. The microphone picked up the questions and comments quite well, which is excellent. Enjoy, and feel free to use the Google Group to continue the discussion.

Thanks again to Skills Matter.

A developer's guide to load testing - slides

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:40:49 GMT

Thanks to everybody that came along to the CTA user group earlier in the week. The tube strike may had reduced the numbers but we still had some great discussion about load testing. My slides are available to download (~4MB) and if anybody wants to continue the discussion, please feel free to use the Google Group.

A developer's guide to load testing (PDF, ~4MB)

I'll post an update when the Skills Matter podcast/video is available to view online.

A developer's guide to load testing

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:39:00 GMT

Here are the details of the June 2009 London User Group.

Title : A developer's guide to load testing
Summary : Load testing is an often forgotten and seemingly difficult task that many people shy away from doing. It doesn't have to be this way though, with a basic level of load testing often enough to give you confidence that you've satisfied your non-functional requirements around performance and scalability. This session will look at load testing a website from a developers perspective. We'll look at the differences between load testing, stress testing and soak testing along with a hands-on demonstration of an open source load testing tool that you can use to get started. If you're building websites in Java, .NET, PHP or indeed any other programming language, this session will show you how easy it is to load test your website.
Date : Tuesday, 9th June 2009
Time : 18:30-20:00
Location : Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde Street
Format : Presentation and discussion, with further discussion in a local pub (The Crown).
Cost : Free, but registration is required.

Many thanks to Skills Matter for sponsoring the user group.

p.s. this session is being run after the second day of our software architecture training at Skills Matter in London ... there are a couple of places left if you want to come along and learn about software architecture.

London User Group - October 2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:55:18 GMT

Here are the details of the October London User Group.

Title : Testing as an Architectual Concern
Summary : In this session, Kevin Seal will present some recent experiences of testing a JavaEE project and how coverage was a double-edged sword, unit testing a blessing and a curse, and a pragmatic mix of test approaches was eventually invaluable in refining the architecture and development process.
Date : Wednesday, 29th October 2008
Time : 18:30-20:00
Location : Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde Street
Format : Presentation and discussion, with further discussion in a local pub (The Crown).
Cost : Free, but registration is required.

Many thanks to Skills Matter for sponsoring the user group.

How much architecture is enough?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:01:00 GMT

Thanks to everybody that came along to our "in *our* brains" session last week where we tried to answer the question of how much architecture is enough. The event was part of Skills Matter's London Agile Month and it was a great turnout where we had some interesting disucssion ranging from what agile is all about through to how architecture tasks should be tackled during an agile project.

The set of slides that I used to set the scene can be downloaded from here (PDF, 0.9MB) and the video from the session can be watched from here (this includes the presentation and the discussion). Also, Alberto Brandolini has a really good blog entry, which covers the session along with some of his own thoughts that followed. See you next month!

How much architecture is enough?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:11:25 GMT

This Wednesday, after the training course and as a part of Skills Matter's London Agile Month, we'll be running a session entitled "How much architecture is enough?". Although this is billed as "In the Brain of Simon Brown", it's actually going to be an "In *our* Brains" session where a few of us will be facilitating a group discussion.

As for how much architecture is enough, well we've touched upon this question before, particularly with respect to the level of design detail you should put in your architecture document and the need for just enough quality. While I don't think that software development is a relay sport, if you are planning on handing off your architecture, how much do you need to do to ensure that this exercise is successful? And on the subject of sharing architectures, how much should you share and are there more creative ways of efficiently delivering your message?

There's lots to talk about and if this stuff interests you, please sign up on the Skills Matter website. This will be the September London User Group and the session starts at 6:30pm.

London User Group - August 2008

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:47:25 GMT

Here are the details of the August London User Group.

Title : Flex, Silverlight or JavaFX - which should you choose?
Summary : Rich Internet Applications are a hot topic at the moment; with Adobe, Microsoft and Sun vying for your attention in a post-AJAX world. But which should you choose? In this session, Simon Brown will present a look at three major RIA platforms - Flex, Silverlight and JavaFX. A common example will be used to demonstrate each of the platforms, additionally acting as a baseline for an unbiased comparison of the code, development paradigm, flexibility, ease of use and so on. The format will be presentation followed by a roundtable discussion where you can ask questions and share your own RIA experiences. Come along and let the RIA debate begin.
Date : Wednesday, 20th August 2008
Time : 18:30-20:00
Location : Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde Street
Format : Presentation and discussion, with further discussion in a local pub (The Crown).
Cost : Free, but registration is required.

Many thanks to Skills Matter for sponsoring the user group.

Update, 13th August : Registration link added and we also have Adobe stuff to giveaway!

London User Group - July 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:40:00 GMT

The next London user group is Tuesday 15th July and it'll be a social event rather than the usual presentation/discussion session. It's summer and we've all been really busy recently, so we thought we'd take some time out to relax. We'll be at The Crown (just around the corner from Skills Matter) from about 6:30ish. Please feel free to come along and join the informal discussion.

London User Group - June 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:48:00 GMT

Here are the details of the June London User Group.

Title : Themes from the Software Architect 2008 conference
Summary : Join us for a discussion of the themes from the recent Software Architect 2008 conference that took place in early June at the Barbican in London. We'll be summarising our view of the conference while looking at the recent trends on display, from both a technical and non-technical perspective.
Date : Monday, 16th June 2008
Time : 18:30-20:00 (after the training)
Location : Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde Street
Format : Presentation and discussion, with further discussion in a local pub (The Crown).
Cost : Free, but registration is required.

Many thanks to Skills Matter for sponsoring the user group.

London User Group - May 2008

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:30:52 GMT

Here are the details of the May London User Group.

Title : Building a high volume, low latency system in Java
Summary : This session will provide some insight into the architecture, design and development of a greenfield high volume, low latency trading and pricing system. Topics include :
- The architecture and design itself.
- How the early development of an executable reference architecture was used to help prove the low latency requirements.
- The structure of the team and how the architecture was shared between a team of architects.
- How mainstream technologies such as Java 5, Spring, JMS, and Oracle were used to successfully deliver a solution where other technologies like C++ might be the immediate first choice for low latency applications.
Speaker : Moudud Ahmed, Detica
Date : Tuesday, 6th May 2008
Time : 18:30-20:00
Location : Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde Street
Format : Presentation followed by a breakout for discussion, with further discussion in a local pub (The Crown).
Cost : Free, but registration is required.

Many thanks to Skills Matter for sponsoring the user group.