This year’s Embedded Masterclass event takes place in Cambridge on 7th May and Bristol on 12th May. The event focusses on the latest developments in embedded systems development and is free for embedded systems engineers and managers working with embedded technologies.

It’s a fun event without the hard-sell of some other events we exhibit at and over the years we’ve taken part in the event we’ve grown to know most of our fellow exhibitors pretty well.

The event is also a great way of networking with fellow engineers from the local area – we’re expecting our best ever turnout this year – so why not invest a day out of the office to find out where the industry is heading? If you do visit then please come and say hello, I’m always keen to hear feedback on the blog.

More details of the masterclass are available here.

In case you haven’t noticed we’re looking for industrial practitioners to share their experiences at October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam.

Here’s the Call for Speakers…

PPL09 Call for Speakers. Submission Deadline Friday 26th June 2009

We are seeking high-quality session proposals covering topics on any practical aspect of Software and System Product Lines

Sessions could cover topics such as:

• Migrating legacy systems to Product Lines
• Model-Driven Software Development for Software Product Lines
• Product Line evolution
• Domain Analysis and Domain Engineering
• Agile methods for Software Product Lines
• Product Line Scoping, Requirements Engineering for Product Lines, Testing Software Product Lines, Variability Management etc.
• Tool and technology development and adoption
• Any other topic related to the practical realisation of Software Product Lines

Case studies and interactive sessions based on any aspect of these and related approaches are particularly encouraged although more theoretical sessions are also welcome.

Take part in Practical Product Lines 2009 and find out how you can boost your productivity while improving the quality and time-to-market of your products.

In addition to paying no conference fees, being a speaker gives you a unique opportunity to present your viewpoint to our audience.

Visit the Practical Product Lines 2009 web site for more information and to submit a proposal.

I’m very pleased to announce that Software Acumen is part of the team behind the new Practical Product Lines conference due to take place in Amsterdam from 20-21 October 2009.

With its emphasis on providing actionable guidance on best practices, Practical Product Lines 2009 will be the ideal opportunity for software practitioners to understand how to benefit from emerging approaches, technologies and tools in the field of Software Product Lines.

Subscribe to this blog or follow me on Twitter to keep track of event news as it emerges.

I took part in the session Writing and Reviewing Technical Documents at SPA 2009 today. Nick Rozanski and Andy Longshaw put this together and delivered it in their usual masterful way.

The core of the session involved group work to analyse an invented technical document. This was supported by a fair number of slides looking at issues in the creation and review of technical documents:

• What are the important factors in a technical document?
• What is the best way to approach reviewing technical documents?
• How do you address the need to get information across to different audiences?
• How can you improve the technical documents you are called on to write as part of your job?

Andy Longshaw created the document we reviewed based on his long experience reviewing technical documents and boy was it a stinker.

Problems included:

• Unclear audience – the document had been written for too many different types of people and failed to address any specific person’s concerns
• Unclear purpose – it was advertised as an architectural blueprint but failed on that role. It wasn’t advertised as a briefing document for upper management but tried to perform that role. It came across in fact as a dumping ground for the author’s knowledge of the planned system.
• Bad organisation – diagrams in the wrong place, metadata up front where least relevant, mixture of fonts and styles
• A mix of levels of details – much high-level stuff but also much low-level stuff.

In Cosmo and Marie Claire it’s quite common to find perfume samples bound into the magazine (so I’m told). This document also had a powerful smell attached to it but something rather less pleasant…

It was very easy to be critical but slightly harder how to improve the document. There were so many mistakes and questions left unanswered that I felt it couldn’t go to a review, it was just too problematic.

Our group’s suggestion was to pair the document’s author with a more experienced technical writer. This person would play the role of a mentor/shepherd to help the author produce a better document by helping them define the audience and purpose. Simon Peyton-Jones joined our group part way through and noted that the document should have a clear statement of what problem it was addressing which summed up nicely its most fundamental problem.

The annual BCS Software Practice Advancement conference starts tomorrow and I’ll be there to help to help Andy Moorley with the set up and to take part in some of the sessions.

If you haven’t been to this conference before you’re in for a treat – lots of great sessions and a very knowledgeable audience too. I’ve spoken at the last 4 conferences but decided to take a break this year so am under no ‘performance pressure’ this time around

Sessions I’m planning to take part in – and I mean ‘take part’, there are few sessions where you have to sit back while someone speaks at you – include:

Writing and Reviewing Technical Documents by Andy Longshaw and Nick Rozanski.

Enhancing your professional toolkit by Marina Haase.

Dealing with the Estimation Fallacy by Rob Bowley. (sorry Peter )

Retrospective Surgery by Rob Bowley & Matt Wynne.

and if time (and Andy) allow:

Consulting without Secrets by Marc Evers and Willem van den Ende.

Should be a great event and, with no session to lead, for once relaxing.

I’m afraid I don’t know whether the conference has now sold out, you could try booking here.

More on SPA 2009 later in the week…