I attended the International Software Craft and Testing Unconference UK just outside Oxford last week for the first time. I have been aware of this for a while but hadn't had the chance to attend before. I had been to another conference which had a single "unconference" track, so I got the idea.
Before the main conference, we had a day of workshops. I ran a 90 minute session introducing C++. That's not much time to learn a language, but I think everyone managed to get something working. I walked though how to build a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, avoiding any mention of pointers or iterators. You need to be able to handle input, output and generate random numbers, which I believe is a great way to try to learn any language.
For the unconference, there's no fixed agenda or schedule beforehand. People chat in groups about potential ideas and pitch these in the morning, to see if anyone is interested. If someone wants to go ahead with the idea, they put the title up on a board in a slot for a specific time and place.
What ended up happening is on their website. I didn't make all the sessions: I needed some headspace and went for a walk round the grounds or did a short gym session a couple of times.
The first session I went to was about confidence. Harram proposed this. She hadn't been to this unconference before (nor had I), so she's braver than me. It seems an old manager told her she wasn't confident enough, so we unpacked what that might mean. I personally didn't feel it was useful or helpful feedback. It's all too easy to be confident but wrong.
After that I went for a short wander and then attended the end of "Workplace conflict, what can ancient warrior arts of the mystic East teach us?"
I've done some martial arts before, but wasn't familiar with the specific ones mentioned here. However, the idea of stepping to the side rather than pushing back cropped up and makes sense. I missed the beginning, so I only caught some of this. Thinking about what "stepping sideways" might mean in a discussion was useful.
Next I went to "As freelancers, how do we decide what to spend our time on", run by Clare.
I have been available for short consultancy this year, but have spent far too much time preparing content for things that got cancelled or getting distracted. To be fair, I have also had a book published and started another one, so I have managed to do some things. Saying "No" once in a while is a good idea. This made me think about how to make better choices next year.
I then went to "What I wish I had known about retirement before I retired", which ended up being a bit focused on money and cashflows, simply because that's what people were asking. I shall take stock and see how I'm doing. Things seem to be getting harder for people. For example, I don't have a student loan, but many younger people do, and that makes planning more difficult.
On Saturday I went to Seb's "BDD reboot". I have had a session about BDD accepted for
OOP next year, and planned to talk about my experiences. Seb's session was a useful reminder of what BDD is really about - clue the middle D for "driven" is important. It's certainly not about slapping Given-When-Then in your tests. Many of the rooms were named after flowers, and this was, appropriately, in Rose.
Next, I went to "Challenges when dealing with time-dependent & historical data". I had hoped someone would give me all the answers, but we just chatted through things we have had to deal with and what we tried. My examples involved reference data changing and how to maybe label versions so you get the same outputs for regression testing. Dealing with time dependent data is hard.
There was a discussion over lunch based around "Unionizing in Tech". Listening to the ins and outs of trying to be a union member in a large tech company was hard. I mentioned a book I read a while ago:
Reorganise: 15 stories of workers fighting back in a digital age, which is about other ways people band together to support each other.
I couldn't settle my head after that so I flitted between sessions then went for a walk. I then went to "I need 28 thoughtful / gratitude reflection style questions". We sketched out questions that could be used in an app which checks in with you each day and shares your answers with others, maybe inspiring them too. Why 28? So the questions could cycle around every four weeks. I'm not sure how useful we were, but things like "What have you learnt recently?" "What would you like to learn next?" etc... ended up on the list.
The last session I went to that afternoon was Clare with "Recently diagnosed or undiagnosed autistic - ask me anything". Most people who attended were either diagnosed autistic or suspect they are. One or two were there because they have an autistic child. I suspect I might be autistic, and I wondered what difference the diagnosis had made to Clare. I nearly ended up in tears a few times, for reasons. The big thing I realised in this session was how many women were at the conference, especially compared to conferences I usually go to.
In the evening, there were some Lightning talks, where people volunteer a short talk, for a maximum of five minutes, on the spot. All kinds of things were covered. Clare gave the last talk about how a hot air balloon ride is like an unconference. I didn't make notes, so I no longer remember who else said what. But that's OK. Lightning talks are a great way to allow people to do a little, which is less scary than a whole session.
Finally, Mervi gave an LED hula hoop performance. You had to be there.
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