177 symposiums and 27,750 attendees since 2002

Jared Richardson

Agile coach and co-author of Ship It

Jared Richardson, co-author of Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful
Software Projects
, is a speaker, consultant, and mentor with NFJS One. Jared has been in the industry for more than fifteen years as a consultant, developer, tester, and manager.

Jared can be found online at Agile Artisans.


Video

Agile Transitions
Agile Transitions
Friday - May 15, 2009

Agile Antipatterns
Agile Antipatterns
Wednesday - April 22, 2009


Blog

Planning Poker, Risk, and Congratulations!

Posted Monday, June 1, 2009

This is a message I sent to the members of AgileRTP, our local Agile user's group. But I wanted to share it with a wider audience, so I'm reposting it here. -Jared This is a quick reminder abo more »

Whisker Goals: Ask for Less. Get More.

Posted Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Made to Stick authors (Dan and Chip Heath) have been discussing whisker goals (as opposed to stretch goals) as a way to get a person (or team) moving forward. And it makes a lot of sense. How often have you decided to "lose weig more »

QA, Developers, and Agile

Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I was recently involved in a discussion about the role of QA, faux-agile, and development. How should they work together? What's the more »

The Case For Continuous Integration: Free Download

Posted Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I wrote an article for the first NFJS Magazine and it's been released as a free sample of the magazine's content. You can download the PDF from the subscription page. Scroll down and look for the Downloa more »

RubyRX and AgileRX!

Posted Monday, March 23, 2009

I'm just starting to organize speakers and topics, but wanted to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. RubyRX and AgileRX are going to be a joint conference in both Philadelphia and DC this year! We'll be in Philadelphia on July more »

Trying Out a New Training Model

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009

Many of my students in recent classes have told us they can only get approval for a single event this year. They want to attend (for instance) our Test Automation Training, and a No Fluff Just Stuff event, but can only get one event approved. more »

The Blue Angles Model: Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

Posted Sunday, March 8, 2009

A few weeks ago in Atlanta a class attendee told me about an idea she'd been considering. A "Blue Angels" style dev group at large companies. The more she talked about it, the more the idea sound more »

NFJS Magazine!

Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009

Today is the launch of the brand new NFJS magazine! It's a great way for you keep new development ideas percolating between the long, lonely months when the NFJS tour isn't in your city. ;) The inaugural issue includes articles from Venkat Sub more »

RubyRX: First Event on the Books!

Posted Sunday, February 22, 2009

Thursday night, and all day Friday and Saturday, were the first RubyRX event, and we had a great time. Topics ranged from Erlang to Active Record to Sinatra. Speakers ranged from Chad Fowler to Stuart Halloway to more »

Optimize Your Team

Posted Sunday, January 25, 2009

T more »
Read More Blog Entries »

Presentations

Agile Software Testing Strategies

Creating and maintaining a solid automated test suite is critical to an Agile strategy, but often we're just told to "Do it." In this talk we'll look at several pragmatic strategies for creating and building your suite more »

Gradual Agile: The Secret to Introducing Agile Practices

Agile practices are popular because they work, but getting people to take that first step can be tricky more »

Techniques 2009

There are a number of great techniques you can use across technologies and projects. Come hear some of my favorite ways to move "beyond" and contribute a few of your own. We'll discuss topics ranging from glue languages to ditching your IDE to building yo more »

Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life

Has your career been a random product of your manager's whims or company's needs? Never rely on your company to keep your skills current and marketable. Take control of your own career with a proven strategy more »

Be Heard: Public Speaking for Techies

Most people fear public speaking more than death, but you don't have to let it handicap you or your career. Learn solid techniques for managing yourself, your content, and your audience. more »

Credit Card Software Development: Recognizing and Repaying Technical Debt

Technical debt has long been recognized in technical circles for years, but convincing your manager to budget time to repay "technical debt" has always been problematic. Let's couch the term technical debt concept in language more familiar to our managers more »

Restoring Agility: Getting Your Team Back on Track

An agile team is first and foremost "a team". When that gets lost in the rush to get a product out the door, the people suffer as well as the products. It's bad for the company, but even worse for the team members. more »

Agile Software Testing Strategies

Creating and maintaining a solid automated test suite is critical to an Agile strategy, but often we're just told to "Do it." In this talk we'll look at several pragmatic strategies for creating and building your suite more »

Build Teams, Not Products

A great team builds great software, but how do you build a great team more »

Agile Anti-Patterns

Agile is wildly popular in some circles and hated in others. How can the same ideas cause such different reactions? Sometimes it's the definition of "agile" and other times it's company culture, but there's usually a good reason when Agile ideas are throw more »

Software Team Tuneup

We're always under pressure to do more with less. More features with less developers. More product in less time. more »

Agile Software Testing Strategies

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Creating and maintaining a solid automated test suite is critical to an Agile strategy, but often we're just told to "Do it." In this talk we'll look at several pragmatic strategies for creating and building your suite.

We'll examine these strategies and then look at scenarios for using them next week. This presentation will get you started whether you're starting a new project or trying to clean up an existing one.

Gradual Agile: The Secret to Introducing Agile Practices

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Agile practices are popular because they work, but getting people to take that first step can be tricky.

We'll look at how continuous integration was successfully introduced to a very large, established software shop and used to introduce other Agile practices. Let's see what lessons we can draw from this example that you can take back to your shop.

Techniques 2009

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
There are a number of great techniques you can use across technologies and projects. Come hear some of my favorite ways to move "beyond" and contribute a few of your own. We'll discuss topics ranging from glue languages to ditching your IDE to building your brain.

In this session we'll discuss:
- Move beyond tools
- Glue languages
- Inbox Zero
- Learning to learn
- Not being a cog anymore
- Macro Object Orientation
- Clean code
- Looking smarter than you are
- Open source tool stacks
- Tighter feedback loops
- Scripted deployments
- Scripting databases
- Virutalization
And more...

Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Has your career been a random product of your manager's whims or company's needs? Never rely on your company to keep your skills current and marketable. Take control of your own career with a proven strategy.

These are solid, repeatable steps to get your career in the trajectory you want. The first step is deciding where you want to go. We'll walk through creating a long-term plan, then break it down into manageable steps. Learn to lead within your own company, then stretch out to your local, regional and national community, building your reputation as you go. From coding to writing to speaking, each step will move you closer to where you want to be: in a position of having options and in control of your career.

Be Heard: Public Speaking for Techies

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Most people fear public speaking more than death, but you don't have to let it handicap you or your career. Learn solid techniques for managing yourself, your content, and your audience.

We'll cover my favorite techniques for presenting information in presentations, connecting with your audience and managing your own nervousness. From the LIP technique to the zen of power point to where to hold your arms, you'll leave this talk with everything you need to be an effective communicator.

Credit Card Software Development: Recognizing and Repaying Technical Debt

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Technical debt has long been recognized in technical circles for years, but convincing your manager to budget time to repay "technical debt" has always been problematic. Let's couch the term technical debt concept in language more familiar to our managers: credit card debt.

Like credit card debt, technical debt accumulates slowly over time, and usually takes just as long to pay off. The interest slowly builds up until you're no longer able to pay off the principle: your entire development cycle is devoted to just "paying the interest". We'll examine common types of technical debt and strategies to effectively communicating the problems, and their solutions, to your managers.

Restoring Agility: Getting Your Team Back on Track

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
An agile team is first and foremost "a team". When that gets lost in the rush to get a product out the door, the people suffer as well as the products. It's bad for the company, but even worse for the team members. We'll learn how to defuse some of the more common problems you'll run into on dysfunctional teams.

Restoring trust and providing visibility is hard once you've been burned. It's not always possible, but we'll examine concrete steps you can take to start rebuilding your trust and your team.

Agile Software Testing Strategies

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Creating and maintaining a solid automated test suite is critical to an Agile strategy, but often we're just told to "Do it." In this talk we'll look at several pragmatic strategies for creating and building your suite.

We'll examine these strategies and then look at scenarios for using them next week. This presentation will get you started whether you're starting a new project or trying to clean up an existing one.

Build Teams, Not Products

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
A great team builds great software, but how do you build a great team?

Let's move beyond getting lucky and look at some key practices that will help you build your scattered cats into a well-oiled machine.

Agile Anti-Patterns

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
Agile is wildly popular in some circles and hated in others. How can the same ideas cause such different reactions? Sometimes it's the definition of "agile" and other times it's company culture, but there's usually a good reason when Agile ideas are thrown out on their collective ears.

In this talk we'll discuss what works about Agile, how advocates have tainted the word in many companies, and how you can move great ideas forward successfully on your team.

Software Team Tuneup

close

Jared Richardson By Jared Richardson
We're always under pressure to do more with less. More features with less developers. More product in less time. More work in fewer hours.



There are several Agile techniques you can use to ensure you and your team and making the most of your days. We'll review several team optimization techniques and discuss their practical applications.


Jared's NFJS Schedule

Boston, MA
Mar 20 - 22, 2009

Reston, VA
Apr 24 - 26, 2009

Philadelphia, PA
Jul 30 - Aug 1, 2009

Raleigh, NC
Aug 28 - 30, 2009

Washington DC
Sep 10 - 11, 2009

Calgary, Alberta
Sep 25 - 27, 2009


Books

by Jared Richardson and William Gwaltney

Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects Buy from Amazon
List Price: $29.95
Price: $21.86
You Save: $8.09 (27%)
  • Ship It! is a collection of tips that show the tools and techniques a successful project team has to use, and how to use them well. You'll get quick, easy-to-follow advice on modern practices: which to use, and when they should be applied. This book avoids current fashion trends and marketing hype; instead, readers find page after page of solid advice, all tried and tested in the real world.

    Aimed at beginning to intermediate programmers, Ship It! will show you:

    • Which tools help, and which don't
    • How to keep a project moving
    • Approaches to scheduling that work
    • How to build developers as well as product
    • What's normal on a project, and what's not
    • How to manage managers, end-users and sponsors
    • Danger signs and how to fix them

    Few of the ideas presented here are controversial or extreme; most experienced programmers will agree that this stuff works. Yet 50 to 70 percent of all project teams in the U.S. aren't able to use even these simple, well-accepted practices effectively. This book will help you get started.

    Ship It! begins by introducing the common technical infrastructure that every project needs to get the job done. Readers can choose from a variety of recommended technologies according to their skills and budgets. The next sections outline the necessary steps to get software out the door reliably, using well-accepted, easy-to-adopt, best-of-breed practices that really work.

    Finally, and most importantly, Ship It! presents common problems that teams face, then offers real-world advice on how to solve them.


by Jared Richardson

  • Has your career been a product of random chance? Learn how to take control. These solid, repeatable steps show you how to chart the course you want, then how to follow it.

    The book is aimed primarily at a technical market, but the content is applicable to most professional fields.