Jon Kern will be XP Denver's guest speaker on Monday, February 23rd. The
Qwest Auditorium doors will open at 6:00 PM and the presentation will begin
at 6:35 PM. Jon (co-author of the Agile Manifesto and Java Design, one of
the originals at TogetherSoft) is currently the Director of Technology for
Compuware's agile methodologies. Included below is information on his
presentation topic, the meeting agenda, and directions. XP Denver meetings
are open to the public and there is no fee to attend.

Jon has provided us with several white papers that you can download at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xpdenver/files/ (see JonKernPart1.zip and
JonKernPart2.zip). He will be in town February 23 and 24 and may still be
available for meetings. Please contact Jonette Brown Eyes at 303.729.1776 or
email jonette.browneyes@... with any inquiries.

***

"Applying MDA in the Real World – Fact or Fiction? – A Counterpoint to
Fowler and Ambler"

You have probably heard or read of raging debates over Model Driven
Architecture, UML’s immaturity, code generation controversy, and modeling is
for wimps. Even such industry notables as Martin Fowler and Scott Ambler
have negative opinions about the viability of MDA.

We found an author of The Agile Manifesto, Jon Kern (friends with both
Ambler and Fowler), who takes a somewhat contrarian view. Jon is a fanatic
about ensuring software development efforts deliver business value.

Jon will describe a pragmatic "distilled" usage that has high project value
when combined with visual tool support. He will discuss where UML and MDA
overlap, and will dismiss the "Silver Bullet" theory that often accompanies
design and development tools.

Along the way, Jon will discuss three simple keys to software development
success.

- Separation of Concerns
- Duality of Architectures
- Agile development

Bring along any favorite war story about a failed or stressed project – and
Jon will point out where the project failed to follow one of his three keys
to success.

How to move your game to the next level:

- If you think there is a career to be had in mapping columns, in doing
deployment descriptors, and banging out repetitive code – think again.
- If you think that development requires lots of repetitive, boring code
creation - you are doing something wrong.
- If you think learning the ins-and-outs of a technology is the only key to
survival – you’re wrong.
- If you think clients are asking for stateless session beans or even
relational databases, think again. They want business value not technology!
- If you think that your development teams are providing optimal value, then
look again. Could it be better?
- If you think that management is even allowing you to provide optimal
value, then look around to see if you are given adequate management support
and slack time to “do the right thing” for long-term business gain for the
enterprise.
- If you think agile development can only be achieved by starting at the
code level, stop typing.
- If you think that modeling has nothing to do with agile development, step
aside.

Model-Driven Development is coming to an enterprise development organization
near you. At the end of his presentation, Jon will provide a 10-minute
glimpse into how one tool can help accelerate development efforts and
provide ways to do more with less.

Knowing Jon Kern, this is sure to be a bit raucous, stimulating,
educational, controversial, and hopefully – lots of fun!

AGENDA:

6:00 - 6:30 PM Networking and refreshments

6:30 - 6:35 PM Announcements and door prize giveaways

6:35 - 7:45 PM Jon Kern's presentation

SPEAKER

Jon is an author of The Agile Manifesto, a co-author of Java Design with
Peter Coad, and one of the original execs who was a major contributor to
TogetherSoft’s success prior to its sale to Borland. Jon has 15+ years of
experience from jet engine R&D, to real-time flight simulators, to
developing IBM’s manufacturing system, to leading TogetherSoft’s development
and QA teams (in Russia).

Jon was recruited by Compuware’s OptimalJ product team in May 2003. Once he
saw the vision and power behind the product, he was hooked.

SPONSORS

The February meeting sponsors are:

- Compuware (www.compuware.com)
- Qwest (www.qwest.com)
- Softpro Books (www.softpro.com)
- Addison-Wesley (www.awl.com)

DIRECTIONS

The Qwest auditorium is at their building on the corner of 17th and Curtis
at 1005 17th Street. At street level, to the right of the escalators, are
doors leading to elevators. Take an elevator to the "A" level (Auditorium).
If those doors are locked, you can take the exterior escalators to Level 1
and enter via doors to the right of the escalator landing. If these doors
are locked, go to the main building lobby which is on Level 1 if you walk
straight from the escalator landing.

In addition to street parking, there is an outside parking lot on the East
side of the Qwest building that costs a flat $6 after 4pm. Several other
lots are within a few blocks and covered parking can be found in the Tabor
Center for around $4.

x X P D E N V E R
p www.xpdenver.org
d info@...