How to keep yourself up to date with changes in the technology world. More details: http://trishagee.github.io/presentation/staying_ahead_of_the_curve/

1. Trisha Gee (@trisha_gee)
Developer & Technical Advocate, JetBrains
Staying Ahead
of the Curve

2. or:
New Technology is Dangerous,
mmmkay

3. Let’s Learn Lambdas!

6. erm…

7. Let’s Go Parallel!

8. 0
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0.8
0.9
Serial Parallel
TimeTaken(seconds) map()
MacBook Surface

9. 0
20
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60
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160
Serial Parallel
TimeTaken(millis) findAny()
MacBook Surface

10. Wait a minute…

11. Why?

12. For The Business

13. Why?
•Customisable dashboards
•A new market squeezes your downtime
window
•You’re adding new products to your
inventory that don’t fit into your current
model

15. Now What?
•Identify possible technology options, e.g:
• HTML5 / JavaScript / JavaFX
• DevOps tools / Containers
• NoSQL

16. {
"openStreetMapId": "20980098",
"location": {
"coordinates": [151.2728552, -33.8931988],
"type": "Point"
},
"amenity": "cafe",
"cuisine": "coffee_shop",
"name": "Gloria Jean's"
},
{
"openStreetMapId": "21554712",
"location": {
"coordinates": [151.9519968, -27.5601496],
"type": "Point"
},
"amenity": "cafe",
"created_by": "JOSM",
"cuisine": "coffee_shop",
"description": "The only place in Toowoomba that roasts its own coffee",
"name": "Chipiron Cafe"
},
{
"openStreetMapId": "27653001",
"location": {
"coordinates": [-1.6937433, 53.9043868],
"type": "Point"
},
"addr:city": "Otley",
"addr:country": "GB",
"addr:housenumber": "9",
"addr:postcode": "LS21 3HE",
"addr:street": "Mercury Row",
"amenity": "cafe",
"cuisine": "coffee_shop",
"gluten_free": "yes",

17. Approaches
• Spikes / prototypes
• Use in non-production code
• Build / Deploy / Continuous Delivery Pipeline
• Tests
• Use in internal tools
• Use on a new project or service
• Get the experts in (remember to share)

18. For The Team

19. Why?
•Mixed team used to different programming
styles
•Releases are painful
•Databases schema changes take ages
•Testing is hard and inconsistent

21. Now What?
•Identify possible technology / process
options, e.g:
• Java 8, Groovy
• DevOps
• NoSQL
• Modern Test Frameworks (e.g. Spock, Lambda Behave)

23. Approaches
•Spikes / prototypes
•Use in non-production code
• Build / Deploy / Continuous Delivery Pipeline
• Tests
•Use in internal tools
•Skunkworks projects / hack days

24. For You

25. Why?
•I want to have fun
•I want a new job
•I want to be a Technology Guru in this job
•I don’t want to be left behind

26. Now What?
•Any technology that looks awesome
•Buzz words from job adverts
•Any technology that is currently (or soon to
be) used at work

29. Approaches
•User Groups
•Online courses
•Pet project
•Join an open source project
•Find a project at work
•Get a new job!

30. Why?
• Because you want to

31. Being Proactive

32. Preventing Premature
Implementation
•Brown Bags
•User Groups
•Hack days
•Skunkworks
•20% time
•Conferences

33. Risks

34. Benefits
•Skilled Developers
•Ready to adopt the right technology at the
right time
•Happy Developers

35. Summary of
Approaches

36. So What Can I Do?

37. Don’t Panic!

39. http://bit.ly/stay-ahead
@trisha_gee