As developers we dread when management requests a project estimate. Typically, you do not have the opportunity to understand all the requirements, the team composition is unknown, and you have been given until tomorrow end of day to produce an estimate. Several months later everyone is yelling at you about the software estimation errors encountered during the project.

This presentation will cover some simple techniques for creating order of magnitude estimates. In addition, leveraging the cone of uncertainty the presentation will also cover techniques for managing management expectations.

Once you leave academic "hello world" projects, software development is full of unknowns which result in the high rate of project failure we see too often in industry. This presentation will cover 10 principles of software risk management necessary for project success.

During the discussion we will cover topics such as pragmatic approaches to risk capture, getting past resistance to publish risks, prioritizing risks, methods of documenting and monitoring risks to name just a couple. While this presentation is targeted to the Technical Lead and Development managers, it should also be of interest to developers and architects.

The factory patterns and callbacks have been around for a long time as a technique to provide flavor specific code variations. But they are awkward and hard to update. Enter Groovy closures. Imagine having the ability to inject different coding flavors using code closures. If you need a different flavor, then just pass a different code block. Now imagine that all of this works on the JVM!

This session will use hands on examples to explore how to use and create closures. In addition, during the discussion we will also discuss when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use closures in your applications.

This session will explore GroovyWS as a tool to quickly produce and or consume a web service. Web Service testing becomes much easier without the need to purchase expense testing tools using the GroovyWS framework.

In this session we will take some code examples to demonstrate the creation of a web service and its consumption using GroovyWS. Also, using GroovyWS and other utilities the session will demonstrate how to dynamically test web services.

When we start a project, our management hands us a copy of MS Project and using this tool we are expected to accurately track the project to completion. What often ends up happening is many of the project tasks are listed as 90% complete and you don't have a clear understanding of the blocking reasons. This presentation will explore various vendor independent time efficient dashboard options you can pursue to properly track your project.

Specifically, we will work through an software project example using various types of burn down and velocity charts, Staffing activity, change control management, and defect management.

When you think about technical leadership positions do you empathize with Peter Pan? "..I won't grow up, (I won't grow up) I don't want to wear a tie. (I don't want to wear a tie) And a serious expression (And a serious expression) In the middle of July. (In the middle of July) And if it means I must prepare To shoulder burdens with a worried air

Fear not..Development is fun for sure...but technical leadership has many more interesting challenges to keep you learning and challenged. Technical Leadership positions are not just about telling people what do! The role also includes; sharing your technical experiences with others, learning new technologies from your team members, working with stakeholders to help ensure that the right product is developed.

During this session we will discuss many aspects of technical leadership including; "setting your team members up for success", effective communication, controlling scope, keeping your stakeholders on your side, as well how to get it "Done".