Agile Australia 2016

The Agile Australia 2016 conference just finished, and I had a great time volunteering and attending, so I thought I’d write a little about it here – partially because one of the things I learned is that employers are really interested in candidates with blogs. I applied to volunteer primarily because I wanted something to do – I’m still feeling a big uni-shaped hole in my life, and I’m not content to sit around waiting for something to come up; I figure I have to go out of my way to fill my days now that I haven’t got the university ‘rhythm’ in my life. Regardless, having gone in with no expectations I was suprised at how much I enjoyed the conference, and I probably learned more than I expected to.

The speakers I saw were great; really dynamic and engaging, with a lot of expertise and experience to share. I got some insight into a broad range of topics, not just agile practices – user experience, project management and planning, entrepreneurship, and a lot more that I’m still processing somewhere at the back of my mind. My main focus was obviously on the ‘capital-A’ Agile side of things: having learned and practiced agile methodologies in the university environment, I was eager to learn more about how it worked out in the “real world”, and to interact with and learn from people who were applying the theories I’d studied in their day-to-day jobs.

I think I had a certain cynicism about Agile which this conference has helped me get over – while I initially got ‘buzzword’ vibes from a lot of the writing on the topic that I’d been exposed to, I think it’s clear that it is something that really works for people – for developers, I mean, not just managers and agile evangelists. I really hope that I can get a job in an team that’s true to the spirit of the methodology; I feel like its not just a trend, but a way of working that would really help me continue learning and start to contribute as I launch my career.