XTC-BOSTON

XTC Meeting Tuesday, January 17, 2011

2012-01-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

Rescheduled from the usual second Tuesday to the third Tuesday.

The January meeting will be:

* Tuesday, January 17, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC Meeting Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011

2011-12-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Apologies for failing to update here for a bit. The group has met in the interim, and in fact had a pretty good meeting in November.

In case I neglect to update here again, the schedule is always posted at our meetup calendar.

Several of us attended a recent code retreat and I expect we'll be talking about that a bit this month. Discussions of how to do this within a team might be interesting.

The December meeting will be:

* Tuesday, December 13, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

No August Meeting

2011-07-31T10:01:00.001-07:00

This group will not be meeting in August.

The next meeting will be the second Tuesday of September.

XTC Meeting June 14, 2011

2011-06-13T04:06:00.000-07:00

The June meeting will be:

* Tuesday, June 14, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC Meeting April 12, 2011

2011-04-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

The April meeting will be:

* Tuesday, April 12, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC Meeting March 8, 2011

2011-02-26T05:52:00.000-08:00

The March meeting will be:

* Tuesday, March 8, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - February 8, 2011

2011-02-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

Due to impending conflicts with the Boston Coding Dojo on Thursdays, we're back to meeting on Tuesdays.

The February meeting will be:

* Tuesday, February 8, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - January 11, 2011

2010-12-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

Due to impending conflicts with the Boston Coding Dojo on Thursdays, we're moving back to Tuesdays.

And I'm officially changing the name back to eXtreme Tuesday Club as well.

The January meeting will be:

* Tuesday, January 11, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - December 9, 2010

2010-12-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

December 5-11 has been declared Computer Science Education Week by the ACM, and I'd love to talk about agility in education.

Other discussion is of course welcome as well.

The December meeting will be:

* Thursday, December 9, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - November 18, 2010

2010-11-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

We're moving this meeting to the third Thursday as the second is Veterans Day.

Following meetings will continue to be on the second Thursday of each month.

The November meeting will be:

* Thursday, November 18, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - October 14, 2010

2010-09-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

The September meeting has been canceled.

We're moving the meetings back to Thursdays for the rest of the fall, and expect to meet on the second Thursday of each month.

The October meeting will be:

* Thursday, October 14, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - August 16, 2010

2010-08-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

The August meeting will be:

* Monday, August 16, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

Boston Software Craftsmanship

2010-07-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

At the July meeting, Zach Shaw told us about a local Software Craftsmanship group he's organized. And Moss Collum talked about a presentation he's presenting for Agile 2010.

As a result of these two discussions, Moss will be doing his presentation "Pairing Games as Intentional Practice" in a preview/practice run at a Boston Software Craftsmanship meeting.

The presentation will be followed by a Code Kata.

The meeting is at Icosystem Corporation • 10 Fawcett St., Cambridge, MA 02138 at 6:30 PM on July 28.

XTC-Boston - July 19, 2010

2010-06-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

We're continuing to meet on Mondays for a bit as we did in June. Not changing the name just yet, and it might move back to Thursday at some point. Or even to the original Tuesday tradition...

The July meeting will be:

* Monday, July 19, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - June 14, 2010

2010-06-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

We're changing this to Mondays for a bit because of a member's schedule conflicts. Not changing the name just yet, and it'll likely move back to Thursday at some point.

We've also changed the start time to 6:30 PM.

The June meeting will be:

* Monday, June 14, from 6:30pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - May 20, 2010

2010-05-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

The May meeting will be:

* Thursday, May 20, from 6:00pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - April 15, 2010

2010-04-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Due to continuing collisions with Agile Bazaar scheduling, I'm moving this to the third Thursday of the month at least for the moment.

A new member has expressed an interest in meeting on Monday or Friday, and we should discuss this. Might mean another name change!

We'll continue meeting at the Cambridge Brewing Company.

The April meeting will be:

* Thursday, April 15, from 6:00pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - March 18, 2010

2010-02-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

After a winter break, we're going to start up again in March.

I planned this for March 11, but now find I have to move it.

It'll be the third Thursday, because the first week conflicts with a meeting of Agile Bazaar and because the second week collided with something else in my schedule. We're going to take it back to Cambridge Brewing Company, where we held several meetings at the very beginning.

The March meeting will be:

* Thursday, March 18, from 6:00pm
* Cambridge Brewing Company, 1E Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02141

XTC-Boston - December 10, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-12-08T02:46:00.000-08:00

The December meeting will be:

* Thursday, December 10, from 6:00pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

This meeting is off-schedule because the regular schedule collided with a meeting of the Agile Bazaar.

This week is Computer Science Education Week, and I'd be interested in discussing agile's relation to education.

XTC-Boston - November 5, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-10-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

The November meeting will be:

* Thursday, November 5, from 6:00pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

The October meeting didn't happen, so I'm retaining the topic planned then...

There's been a bit of discussion of Agile certification going on as the Scrum Alliance is apparently considering developing a certification aimed at the development process. I'd love to talk about this.

But as always, we can talk about anything.

XTC-Boston - October 1, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-09-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

The October meeting will be:

* Thursday, October 1, from 6:00pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

There's been a bit of discussion of Agile certification going on as the Scrum Alliance is apparently considering developing a certification aimed at the development process. I'd love to talk about this.

But as always, we can talk about anything.

XTC-Boston - September 3, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-08-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

The September meeting will be:

* Thursday, September 3, from 6:00pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

Since some members will have just returned from Agile2009 in Chicago, and I missed the conference, I'm hoping to hear highlights from people who made it there.

But as always, we can talk about anything.

XTC-Boston - August 13, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-08-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the late notice here on the blog.

This is off-schedule as the normal first Thursday conflicted with an Agile Bazaar event. I did get the announcement out to the meetup group, and we have a few RSVPs there.

We will be meeting on the second Thursday this month.

The meeting will be:

* Thursday, August 13, from 6:00pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

XTC-Boston - June 4, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-06-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Discussion is as always open and we'll likely discuss whatever comes up, but I'd like to talk about the process of forming an agile team. How can we effectively aim for agility from the start?

Agile Bazaar - March 26

2009-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

Effective Agile Sales:
A Good Suit and a Great Pitch Just Doesn't Cut it Anymore

Mar 26 - Mar 26 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Pizzeria Uno - Newton

The agile community has tried for a decade to sell the agile approach reliably with mixed results. They seem to have been learning the hard way that agile is a complex sale—one which requires unanimous agreement from many buyers with differing goals. To maximize the probability of unanimous buy-in, you need to think strategy.

In this presentation, Niraj Khanna and J.B. Rainsberger will help us with strategy for selling the Agile approach.

For more details and directions to the event, see the Agile Bazaar meeting announcement.

XTC-Boston - April 9, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-03-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

The next meeting will be:

Thursday, April 9, from 6:00pm
The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

A group member has commented:

I'd like to offer up a discussion point, if I may. "How Agile are you?". I'd be interested to hear peoples' thoughts and reasonings.

The discussion can of course wander off in many directions, but this sounds like an excellent starting point.

XTC-Boston - March 5, 2009 at Kinsale's

2009-02-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

The next meeting will be:

* Thursday, March 5, from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

We've taken a break during the winter months, but we're starting up again now.

Meetings were very lightly attended most of last summer and fall, and I'm hoping we can find a way to make the meetings work better in 2009.

XTC-Boston - October 2, 2008 at Kinsale's

2008-09-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

The next meeting will be:

* Thursday, October 2, from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

In this meeting, we'll discuss "Transitioning to Agile".

How quickly can a transition be made? Whar changes are best to start with? How do you measure success?

We'll also discuss XTC itself - see "How can we improve eXtreme Thursday".

How can we improve eXtreme Thursday?

2008-09-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's approximately a year since we started XTC. In that year, we've had some very good meetings, but also some that were tiny and one that was just me enjoying a drink by myself...

Some thoughts on changes that might help:

Settle on a location: Kinsale's seems appropriate based on our experiences.
Select a main topic for each meeting: I'll propose a topic for the October meeting.
Schedule more frequent meetings: Might have an interesting counter-intuitive effect.
Note who's attending: We're getting a bit of this from meetup. Can it be improved? London does this by a wiki.

I'd love to hear other ideas. What would make this group more useful to you?

XTC-Boston - September 4, 2008 at Kinsale's

2008-08-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

The September meeting will be:

* Thursday, September 4 from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

Agile Bazaar FIT4Data presentation July 31

2008-07-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

In several of our XTC meetings, we have discussed the use of Fit: Framework for Integrated Test, and another local agile group is holding an interesting related session at 6 PM July 31 on the MIT campus, in building E51, room 315.

In this session, Adrian Mowat will describe how he test-drives database migration code using a database tool layered on top of the Java implementation of FIT.

For a bit more description, see http://agilebazaar.org/.

XTC-Boston - August 14, 2008 at Kinsale's

2008-07-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

The schedule is changing to the second Thursday for this month because the regular date would put it during the Agile2008 conference in Toronto, which some of our members will be attending.

The August meeting will be:

* Thursday, August 14 from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

July 3 Meeting canceled

2008-06-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Something else has come up on my schedule, and I have no indication anyone else was planning to attend.

We'll try to meet in August!

XTC-Boston - July 3, 2008 at Kinsale's

2008-06-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

The June meeting was light - just two of us, and I was late for it. But I had a good rambling talk with Jason, about story sizing and splitting, kanban boards, his experiences working at ThoughtWorks, my adventures in job-hunting, and assorted languages.

This month, we'll return again to Kinsale's, which is convenient for most of the regulars and has worked well in the past. If we finally settle on a recurring venue, this is likely to be it.

The schedule puts us very close to a major holiday, so people may be out of town. If it looks likely I'm going to be all alone, I might cancel. Please try to let me know if you plan to attend. If I decide to cancel, I'll put up a notice.

The July meeting will be:

* Thursday, July 3 from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

XTC-Boston - June 12, 2008 at Tavern in the Square

2008-05-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

The May meeting was small but pretty good anyway, at least in my opinion.

I arrived early and waited at the bar. I was delighted to discover that instead of peanuts at the bar, Felt had wasabi peas. Yum! Rumor is that Felt frequently has events on Thursdays with cover charge though, so it doesn't work as a permanent hangout.

Three of us (Don, Dave and Duane) met and discussed many things, including Python/Jython, Scala, FIT, computing in ancient times, and my job options (I'm still looking ...).

The schedule is changing to the second Thursday for next month because of a conflict I have for the regular date.

We're going to a place in Central Square, Cambridge that I recently saw work very well for a different group.

The June meeting will be:

* Thursday, June 12 from 6:30pm
* The Tavern in the Square, 730 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

XTC-Boston - May 1, 2008 at Felt

2008-04-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

The April meeting was a smashing success, with a near-record 10 people attending.

This month, we're going to try a new place suggested at a previous meeting.

The May meeting will be:

* Thursday, May 1 from 6:30pm
* Felt, 533 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111

This is a nightclub and restaurant on three floors with billiard tables. We hope we'll be able to find a quiet spot in it on a Thursday night, and maybe we'll even play some pool while talking about agile software development.

XTC-Boston - April 3, 2008 at Kinsale

2008-03-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

This month, we'll return to Kinsale's, and expect to have some guests from the Cyrus NYC team. Sorry for the late decision on venue.

The April meeting will be:

* Thursday, April 3 from 6:30pm
* The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108

New England Agile Bazaar March 27, 2008

2008-03-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Topic: Developer Workspaces Enable Agile Teams

Workspace Management is often an afterthought for teams, agile or not.
For teams to work effectively developers need mechanisms to help
ensure that their changes will integrate well with others' work. Good
workspace practices also improve team productivity by avoiding "works
for me" conversations and by decreasing ramp up times when people
start new projects.

This talk will discuss some of the patterns and practices for
workspace management that you can apply to help developers be more
effective.

Speaker: Steve Berczuk, Cyrus Innovation.

Steve Berczuk has been developing software applications for over 20
years, and is an evangelist for practices that enable agile teams.
Steve is a Certified Scrum Master (Practicing), the author of Software
Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical
Integration and a columnist for CM Crossroads.

TIME: 6:30 - 9:00pm
Networking: 6:00 - 6:30pm
LOCATION: MIT E51-315
COST: free
RSVP: None required.
DIRECTIONS: See directions on AgileBazaar site

XTC-BOSTON - March 6th, 2008

2008-02-17T03:30:00.000-08:00

In February, five of us met at An Tain and had some quite good conversations, but changed venue half way through because the bar was quite load. We're going to try the bar we switched to again.

We'll keep trying out different locations in hopes of finding one more conducive to discussion.

The next meeting will be:

* Thursday, March 6th from 6:30pm
* The Place, 2 Broad St., Boston, MA 02110

Mary Poppendeick in Worcester Jan 31

2008-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Appraisals and Compensation: The Elephant in the Room

Appraisals, bonuses, and compensation in general have a dramatic impact on individual and team performance, and yet these subjects tend to be avoided as if they were taboo. This talk will take a look the underlying conflict between individual rewards and teamwork. It will examine the history and literature of reward systems, particularly those in environments which require collaboration.

The location is a bit afield from Boston, but it is also possible to participate remotely.

This event is sponsored by another local Agile group - The New England Agile Bazaar. See the website for directions, schedule, and instructions for remote connection.

XTC-BOSTON - February 7th, 2008

2008-01-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Last week at Coogan's five eXtreme Thursday members - Heather Kanzer, Jason Wadsworth, J.L. Holup, Moss Collum and Don Roby (yours truly) - met and had some quite good conversations in spite of having to converse over a rather loudly miked trivia question game.

We'll keep trying out different locations in hopes of finding one more conducive to discussion. The decision to meet on Thursdays may continue to make this difficult, so we might at some point going back to Tuesdays. But not just yet...

The next meeting will be:

Thursday, February 7th from 6:30pm
An Tain, 31 India St, Boston, MA 02110

I don't know this place, but it was recommended as a nearby possibility. It may of course have similar problems on a Thursday night. It definitely has entertainment that would interfere on the weekends.

XTC-BOSTON - January 3, 2008

2007-12-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

The December meeting ended up being only a couple of us regulars from Cyrus, but it was a pleasant evening nonetheless. Probably everyone else was busy shopping...

Kinsale's was convenient for those of us that did make it, so we may continue with downtown pubs for a bit.

The next meeting will be:

Thursday, January 3rd from 6:30pm
Coogan's, 171 Milk St, Boston

Coogan's is at the corner of Milk and India, across the street from the custom house. The Cyrus team has been there once and liked it, but it wasn't a Thursday evening, so we'll see what that's like.

Join us to continue the over-indulgence of the season while talking about agile software development.

XTC Boston is now a MeetUp group

2007-11-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

We've formed a MeetUp Group and announced the December meeting there.

This group is being formed to help us get the word out to others interested in joining.

We'll continue putting meeting notices here of course, but registering with meetup and joining the group there may have advantages. For example, meetup.com includes an email list associated with the group. If event notices don't automatically go to this list, we could certainly start posting notices there as well.

XTC-BOSTON - December 6, 2007

2007-11-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

eXtreme Tuesday Becomes eXtreme Thursday

Our last get-together was a lively discussion about bringing agile methods to non-agile teams. At the end of the evening we also discussed the day we meet, the frequency, and the venue:

Tuesdays seem to compete with too many other gatherings.
Twice a month seems to be too often.
The Cambridge Brewing Co. is getting noisier and is having more trouble accommodating us. It's also full of people who look like they may be us, making it more difficult for new people to find us.

So we're going to try some changes:

The eXtreme Tuesday Club is becoming the eXtreme Thursday Club. (This has the added advantage that we don't have to change our URL.)
We're going to try meeting once a month, on the first Thursday of the month.
We're looking for alternative places to meet. In December we're going to try Kinsale in central Boston.

That means that there will be no meeting the third week of November. The next meeting will be:

Thursday, December 6th from 6:30pm
The Kinsale Irish Pub and Restaurant, 2 Center Plaza, Boston

In other news, I will be headed back to New York at the beginning of December, so I won't be attending this or most subsequent meetings. I'll be thinking of you while I'm having beers at XTC-NYC though. Enjoy yourselves!

--Paul

XTC-BOSTON - November 6, 2007

2007-11-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

Join us at the Cambridge Brewing Company for another eXtreme Tuesday this coming Tuesday evening at 6:30pm. If you don't know anyone yet, have a look at the sidebar on this page; you're sure to recognize at least one of us there on Tuesday night.

Nov 6 2007 from 6.30pm
Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Sq, Bldg. 100, Cambridge

XTC-BOSTON - October 16, 2007

2007-10-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Oct. 2 get-together was attended by a lively group of 12; among other items of interest was a prototype of the $100 laptop. (Thanks, Mitch!)

We're going to continue meeting at the Cambridge Brewing Co. owing to its convenient location and convivial atmosphere (especially that the music doesn't drown out the conversation). The next Boston eXtreme Tuesday will be on Tuesday, Oct. 16 starting at 6:30pm.

It wasn't too difficult for the new folks to find us, but I'll try adding pictures of some of us regulars before the next meeting.

Oct 16 2007 from 6.30pm
Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Sq, Bldg. 100, Cambridge

XTC-BOSTON - October 2, 2007

2007-09-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

We've decided to stay at the Cambridge Brewing Company for the next get-together. We're looking for alternatives, so if you know of a hospitable place that is relatively central, reasonably accessible via T, but also with convenient parking, please post a comment with your suggestion.

The next Boston eXtreme Tuesday will be on Tuesday, Oct. 2 starting at 6:30pm. Feel free to add a comment if you plan to come!

We discovered at the last meeting that asking people to look for a likely bunch of geeks in Cambridge didn't do much to distinguish us from everybody else. I'll try to post photos soon so you can recognize some of us, but you can always look for people (or at least one person) wearing Cyrus Innovation shirts.

Oct 2 2007 from 6.30pm
Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Sq, Bldg. 100, Cambridge

XTC-BOSTON - Sept 18, 2007

2007-09-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

The inaugural Boston eXtreme Tuesday will be at the Cambridge Brewing Company, Kendall Square on Tuesday, Sept. 18 starting at 6:30pm. Please add a comment if you plan to come!

If you want to find us and don't know what any of us look like then (a) look for a likely bunch of geeks and ask "Are you extreme?" or (b) look for people wearing Cyrus Innovation shirts.

Sep 18 2007 from 6.30pm
Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Sq, Bldg. 100, Cambridge

Extreme Tuesday - Boston Edition

2007-09-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the XTC-BOSTON blog!

This blog will be hosting announcements for Boston eXtreme Tuesday meetups. The idea is someone will announce the next meetup, and then people can comment to say whether they will be coming, and any possible discussions they might be interested in having.

Why XTC-BOSTON?

The original eXtreme Tuesday Club is a weekly gathering of eXtreme Programming practitioners that has taken place in London for 8 years or so. It has provided a great community for like-minded software developers, managers and coaches to get together in a very informal way to discuss the ups and downs of using XP and other agile Software Development methods on a wide variety of projects in all sorts of organisations.

When Mike Roberts moved to New York City, he missed the informality / beer / random banter of London's XTC and decided to kick off a similar event there in January 2007. Among other attendees were developers from New York's Cyrus Innovation. Now that Cyrus has established an office in Boston, its XP developers are looking for a place to quaff tankards of ale once again with other agile aficionados. Hence, XP Boston.

(Thanks to Mike for providing the idea, the New York implementation, and the source blog material from which I cribbed freely.)