VanDev: Improving Programmer Productivity

In February we've got "Ducky" Sherwood, a UBC masters student, speaking on some of the ways that programmers can be more productive. Research shows that productivity is often dominated more by the snags that we hit than the rate at which we work between those snags. How do we minimize the hangups? Bring your ideas and opinions and join in on the discussion.

Following the presentation we'll have a door prize draw, round-the-room introductions, and then open the floor for networking. This is a networking event so bring your business/contact cards and a story or 2 to share.

About the presentation:

"Ducky" will be discussing what empirical research has to say about programmer productivity and will also talk briefly about a number of tools (mostly for Java) that can improve productivity. These include developer aids like omniscient debuggers, semi-automatic constraint verifiers, coverage visualizers, and heuristic bug finders.

About the speaker:

Kaitlin "Ducky" Sherwood has worked for twenty years in the West Coast high-tech field in areas including semiconductor manufacturing, electronic design automation, code maintenance, configuration management, technical writing, and web applications. She has written two books, hosted around 40 episodes of TV shows, and won a Best of the Web award. She is currently finishing her masters degree in computer science at UBC where she studies programmer productivity. For more on Ducky see http://webfoot.com/du....