Early thoughts on SPA
I’m just back from SPA and still haven’t had time to really properly unpack my thoughts. However, my desire to get some thoughts off my chest seems to be preventing me from sleeping – so here I am at 2:44am (silly idiot) and apologies in advance for any gibberish that follows – comments as always are hoped for and cherished.
SPA is an intriguing conference/community especially from my perspective coming from a vendor! In some ways you find you are treated a little as an outsider, held at arm’s length and viewed with a little suspicion. But this is perhaps a little unfair as the people there are highly intelligent, motivated and truly excited by the industry they are in and their role within it. I love SPA, and one day I hope that they’ll love me too.
Highs: The people, the location, the weather: being at a Cambridge College on a lovely spring day almost made you think of returning to academia. However, this didn’t last long. The sessions were a mixed bag for me, but the workshop on “What motivates software practitioners?”and the think tank on “Why am I a PHP developer” and “A toolkit for enhancing learning” were all very valuable. However, it was the goldfish bowls that stole it for me! Not necessarily because of the content although that was revealing but more because of the format and the wide ranging debate that was the result.
Lows: Not many really although while the location was great in one way, it didn’t have the intimacy of the Robinson centre that SPA usually takes place in. Therefore, we have to thank the great weather as if there had been rain it would have been a different vibe. Poor sessions always detract and “Tackling the Encapsulation – Testability Trade-off” gave me zero and while the plenary “Monasticism for the married” was presented with great gusto and pace the content suggesting that agile developers are the good people and the business is the bad people was very poor and not a good viewpoint to take IMHO. The only saving grace was that at the end when questions were asked the speaker did say something along the lines of “Well maybe it’s my fault really as I really don’t know how to talk to the business” – a very true comment and far more insightful than his scripted conclusion that the “lion (business) will eat the antelope (agile) unless the antelope protects itself” and here he offered up a pencil drawing of a group of triceratops standing in a circle ... and we all know what happened to themJ.
Vibes: When I’m at SPA I really like to see if I can spot clues as to what the future might hold, so briefly here are my top tips for things that I reckon are going to get more airplay (so this is bound to be the kiss of death).
Firstly, the return of the function; functional languages were alluded to everywhere. No one spoke on them per say, but there was a low background sort of hum that makes me think that Smalltalk is not going to lie dormant for ever. Personally, I off to get a refresher from my friend Blair Mcgalshan on Dolphin. Anyone heard of seaside?
Second, was the need to learn from our past. Not that this is necessarily anything new about SPA but there is growing fervour that we are rewriting the wheel albeit in a new context. With IT hitting the age of 50 and BCS running a conference this summer to celebrate this, I think we’re one to a resurgence and revival in old values and skills but not in a negative fashion but revitalised and forward thinking. On talking to Immo from the BCS I’m delighted that Microsoft will now be proud sponsors and I’ve booked my place to attend.
Thirdly, and tied in to the thoughts above is that of education and the emerging skills gap. This was very prevalent in many of the sessions I attended. We’re not getting the people we want into IT and those that we get are not equipped for the job ahead.
Final thought that is also tied in to these thoughts above is the IT brain drain. Although not quantified there is some feeling of disillusionment with the IT industry and in some ways a feeling that many are locked in and unable to look to re-skill outside. However, there is awareness that unlike other skills IT is one of the few that will allow you to move horizontally while not forcing you to take a lower grade position. SPA is far from the standard cross section of IT and it maybe not surprising that a great many are attending open university courses in their spare time however, this is not the first time I have heard it spoken about which leads me to suggest that many are seeking other outlets and potential opportunities. Although some may be seeking a way out of the industry I also wonder about the loss of our talent overseas. Rob Machin from Endava mentioned that there is a four year waiting list to emigrate to Canada, he had no idea of the split across trades, but you can bet I am off to find out.
SPA is not a developer conference so beware. It's a thriving community and a great experience for all you IT thinkers out there and a gold mine to renew your book list for the next year:)!
