If you’re fed up with the time, costs and hassle of going to London (or further) to hear from the best software speakers then a new series of software talks we’re launching in Cambridge could be of interest.

The first session will take place on the evening of Thursday November 20th at Downing College, Cambridge.

Steven Kelly – Moving from Coding to Model-Driven Development Everybody would like the productivity benefits of modelling with full code generation, but the upgrade path from coding to modelling seems a closely guarded secret. This session will demystify Domain-Specific Modelling, open the lid on the OMG’s MDA, and shine a light on Microsoft’s Software Factories. We will show which bits of Model-Driven Development (MDD) work, which might work, and which don’t, and explain where they can be applied – and where not. Most importantly, we will show the steps to define your own modelling languages and generators to start using models effectively, road-tested in dozens of projects over a decade.

Steven is CTO of MetaCase and co-founder of the DSM Forum. He has over fifteen years of experience of tool building and consultancy in Domain-Specific Modelling. As architect and lead developer of MetaEdit+, he has seen it win or be a finalist in awards from SD Times, Byte, Net.Object Days, and Jolt Productivity. He has co-authored a book and over 20 articles in journals such as Dr. Dobb’s, and regularly speaks at events like Code Generation and Software Architect. Steven is a member of IASA, on the editorial board of JDM, and a full-back in the Finnish 3rd division.

Danilo Beuche – Get started with Software Product Lines – Key success factors and what to avoid Organisations as different as embedded automotive suppliers and investment banks face the challenge of producing portfolios of similar-but-different software applications. However, many of them struggle with mindsets, processes and tooling that is more appropriate to one-of-a-kind system development without realising that there is a better way…

This talk introduces Software Product Lines – a strategic approach to developing such interdependent product families that has been shown to yield major organisational and financial benefits. Based on extensive experience introducing product lines into a wide variety of organisations Danilo will discuss the key success factors in introducing product lines and highlight the pitfalls to avoid.

Danilo works for pure-systems GmbH, a specialist provider of tools and services for the application of Software Product Line technology. As well as managing the company Danilo also consults extensively on Product Line Engineering, mainly for clients in embedded industries. Danilo has been a tutorial presenter, speaker, workshop organizer and panellist at conferences such as AOSD, ISORC, SPLC and OOPSLA. He is also author of many articles in scientific journals and software development magazines. Danilo has a PhD from the University of Magdeburg for his research applying Software Product Line Engineering to embedded operating systems development.

We’ll be charging a modest entry fee for each talk to cover costs but more details of this will appear on the event web site shortly when booking opens.

We’re also interested in finding out who you’d like to hear from at future events. Contact me through Software Acumen with your ideas.