Presentations
87 presentations total. These are references to presentations I’ve given, in reverse chronological order. You may also be interested in my technical portfolio, my publications outside of this blog, and press articles about me.
- 29 Sep 2018 » Delivered as a five-minute lightning talk at the 2018 beCamp. Since the topic didn't receive enough votes to reserve a dedicated session, and I didn't have a full talk prepared anyway, I assembled this talk the morning of the event.
- 29 Sep 2018 » Delivered as a five-minute lightning talk at the 2018 beCamp. Since the full talk didn't receive enough votes to reserve a dedicated session, I assembled this abridged version as a preview of the full talk the morning of the event.
- 28 Sep 2018 » Delivered as part of the Friday Tech Talk series organized by Robby Anderson and the Training Grouplet at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 24 Aug 2018 » Delivered as part of the Friday Tech Talk series organized by Robby Anderson and the Training Grouplet at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests.
- 09 Aug 2018 » Delivered at Apple at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA.
- 09 Aug 2018 » Delivered at Apple at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. The audience voted to hear "Part Two: The Bother", but since we had enough time left over in this session, I did an abbreviated version of "Part One: The Why" was well.
- 08 Aug 2018 » Delivered at Apple at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA.
- 08 Aug 2018 » Delivered at Apple at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA.
- 19 Jul 2018 » Intro to Grouplets in PortlandA five-minute overview of Grouplets tailored to Cvent's Portland, Oregon office during their quarterly "Mullet" (business in the front, party in the back) presentation. In addition to providing some basic, general information, it also highlighted how members of the Portland office were making material contributions to several Grouplets. I also managed to win the audience's sympathy and elicit the largest applause while choking up during the "Thank you" slide at the end. Unplanned, but effective.
- 13 Jun 2018 » Testing RoadmapAn introduction to the Test Certified-inspired Testing Roadmap program being developed by the Cvent Testing Grouplet. Current features include standard tools and conventions for code coverage collection and reporting, and API documentation and testing.
- 12 Jun 2018 » Based on my original Documentation as Organization Hacking Tools talk, tailored to the current work of the Cvent Documentation Grouplet. Highlights include the "Templates, checklists, glossaries, and guides" initiative and the Custom Links service.
- 15 Jun 2018 » Grouplets in Fredericton outroReview of my Grouplet-related discovery during my visit to Cvent's Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada office. It highlighted the issues that people said were of the most concern, and individuals who pledged to get more involved in Grouplet activity.
- 13 Jun 2018 » Testing RoadmapAn introduction to the Test Certified-inspired Testing Roadmap program being developed by the Cvent Testing Grouplet. Current features include standard tools and conventions for code coverage collection and reporting, and API documentation and testing.
- 12 Jun 2018 » Tech New Hire Orientation Intro to GroupletsLed the introduction to Grouplets session for the Tech New Hire Onboarding program. This is a very high-level overview intended to promote questions and discussion within the new hire group, as opposed to a lecture. After this, I recruited a roster of potential speakers to deliver the talk, so I wouldn't have to do it myself every time.
- 12 Jun 2018 » Based on my original Documentation as Organization Hacking Tools talk, tailored to the current work of the Cvent Documentation Grouplet. Highlights include the "Templates, checklists, glossaries, and guides" initiative and the Custom Links service.
- 11 Jun 2018 » Intro to Grouplets in FrederictonAn overview of Grouplets tailored to Cvent's Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada office. In addition to providing some basic, general information, it also highlighted how members of the Fredericton office were making material contributions to several Grouplets.
- 29 May 2018 » Delivered to a class of the Cvent MBA program, an internal leadership training program. The last third (from about the "Scarlet G" on) was updated as an introduction to Grouplets at Cvent. It ended with proposed "in-class" and "homework" exercises at the end. While I don't think anyone did the "exercises", they did comprise a useful list of important questions and actionable suggestions. Perhaps they'll become a thing someday.
- 16 May 2018 » Tech New Hire Orientation Intro to GroupletsLed the first-ever introduction to Grouplets session for the Tech New Hire Onboarding program. This was a very high-level overview intended to promote questions and discussion within the new hire group, as opposed to a lecture.
- 25 May 2018 » Grouplets MeetupDelivered to 472 registered attendees (with possibly more unregistered) across thirteen offices in two separate sessions. This provided a broader view of the Grouplets based upon the highlights provided during the 2018 Q1 Tech Town Hall. I presented the opening, Intergrouplet, and closing slides; other volunteers covered the other Grouplets, gave testimonials, and led breakout sessions. Nearly every Grouplet experienced a membership bump. Two new Grouplets, Product Management and Tech Hiring, sprung up later in the quarter, for a total of nine Grouplets.
- 19 Apr 2018 » Grouplets UpdateDelivered at the Cvent 2018 Q1 Tech Town Hall, broadcast to Technology teams across all offices in two separate sessions. While not an Ignite talk like the "Intro to Grouplets" talk the previous quarter, this advertised the progress and aspirations of all the Grouplets. It also highlighted the new Green and Security Grouplets, and advertized the first company-wide Grouplets Meetup the following week.
- 26 Feb 2018 » Delivered at WeWork at Tower 49 in New York City at the invitation of fellow Instigator and new WeWorker David Plass. This is the first instance to incorporate my favorite line from "Intro to Grouplets" (see below).
- 18 Jan 2018 » Delivered at the Cvent 2017 Q4 Tech Town Hall, broadcast to Technology teams across all offices in two separate sessions. This talk, in Ignite talk format, consists of twenty slides at fifteen seconds apiece, for a total time of five minutes. It introduces the concept of Grouplets, how they address systemic issues in coordination with top-down company initiatives, the Grouplets currently underway at Cvent, and how to join or start a Grouplet. My new favorite line encapsulating the concept of Grouplets comes from this talk: "The power of Grouplets comes from the common language that emerges when different parts of the company come together to solve common problems."
- 08 Dec 2017 » Delivered to members of Cvent in Austin, Texas by request after the previous afternoon's "Docs & Grouplets" session.
- 07 Dec 2017 » Docs & GroupletsDelivered to members of Cvent in Austin, Texas. This talk kicked off a broad ranging discussion about company wide documentation, testing, communication, and collaboration challenges how Grouplets could enable Austin Cventers to engage with others across the company to develop solutions.
- 15 Nov 2017 » Docs & GroupletsAn Ignite talk to fellow R&D team members at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia, one of a series commissioned by Ramez Mourad for our R&D "in week". It introduces our internal technical documentation challenges, why it's important to solve them, how the Doc Grouplet is working towards solutions, and how Grouplets in general can solve systemic organizational issues in a grassroots, fun fashion.
- 08 Nov 2017 » Delivered to R&D and QE team members at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 19 Oct 2017 » Delivered to R&D and QE team members at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests.
- 05 Oct 2017 » Delivered to the Tech Leads at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia. I wasn't planning on giving the talk that day, but was asked to do it about an hour and a half before the regular Tech Leads meeting, since there was nothing else proposed for this meeting's agenda. Since I didn't have my iPad Mini with my speaker's notes, yet my Google Slides are embedded in the The Rainbow of Death page, I was able to plug my clicker into Brent Ryan's machine, pull the notes up on mine, and proceed without a hitch. It was a tough room at first, with many of the TLs staring at their laptops, unblocking people and waiting for fires to put out—but by the final act of the talk (the call to action, after Rachel Potvin's @Scale 2015 stats), I had 'em.
- 04 Oct 2017 » Delivered to the Quality Engineering team at Cvent in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
- 16 Sep 2017 » Delivered at beCamp 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Drawing slides and inspiration from "The Rainbow of Death" and "Making the Right Thing the Easy Thing (January 2017 Edition)", the talk itself was only conceived the night before, the deck assembled that morning, and the first run-through was also the first delivery. See: Making a child, or speaking at beCamp 2017
- 16 Sep 2017 » go-script-bash Lightning Talk at beCamp 2017Delivered at beCamp 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Another attempt to give a lightning talk on the framework that went horribly, beautifully wrong. See: Making a child, or speaking at beCamp 2017
- 16 Sep 2017 » Delivered at beCamp 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. No video, and a bit rushed, but it was a small, intimate group that really enjoyed it all the same. See: Making a child, or speaking at beCamp 2017
- 10 Aug 2017 » Delivered at the DevOpsDC Meetup, hosted at Excella Consulting's Arlington Tech eXchange. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests.
- 14 Jul 2017 » Delivered at the Child Welfare Digital Services office and hosted by the CWDS and the California Office of Systems Integration. Organized by Henry Poole of CivicActions and Bill Maile of CWDS/OSI. A video of the talk is available, as well as a CWDS blog post. This video is the first with the Schibsted Fixit pictures, commitment model slides, and roles slide.
- 13 Jul 2017 » Delivered at the Agile Government Sacramento Meetup, hosted by the Hacker Lab and organized by Henry Poole and Aaron Pava of CivicActions. This delivery of the core talk was the first with the Schibsted Fixit pictures, commitment model slides, and roles slide.
- 11 Jul 2017 » Keynote address delivered at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's DevOps@PTO event. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at USPTO, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute. Designed to set up topics for the Open Spaces sessions later in the day.
- 29 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at willhaben in Vienna. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 28 Jun 2017 » Exploratory Testing or Test Automation?Delivered internally at willhaben in Vienna. Borrows heavily from "Automated Testing—Why Bother? Part One: The Why" to explain why developer-written automated tests are important and necessary, and emphasizes how it increases the efficiency and value of manual, exploratory testing. Drafted with Fabyanna Eriksson, Jakob Alander, and Toni Lopez. Delivered immediately after the "Automated Testing—Why Bother? Part One: The Why", but very quickly, considering the overlap with that talk; the rest of the time was dedicated to questions and open discussion.
- 28 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at willhaben in Vienna. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests. This talk was later in the afternoon than "The Rainbow of Death, Schibsted Edition".
- 28 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at willhaben in Vienna. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 27 Jun 2017 » Delivered at Schibsted Tech Polska in Krakow as part of the first KRK Tech Talks Meetup/Schibsted Tech Talks event. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin. Yes, another back-to-back talk session.
- 27 Jun 2017 » Delivered at Schibsted Tech Polska in Krakow as part of the first KRK Tech Talks Meetup/Schibsted Tech Talks event. A video of the talk is available, as well as a Schibsted Teck Polska blog post. I have to say, everything turned out really, really well!
- 26 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Tech Polska in Krakow. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 26 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Tech Polska in Krakow. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 22 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Sverige in Stockholm. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute. This came later in the afternoon than "Exploratory Testing or Test Automation?".
- 22 Jun 2017 » Exploratory Testing or Test Automation?Delivered internally at Schibsted Sverige in Stockholm, to an audience consisting primarily of test leads. Borrows heavily from "Automated Testing—Why Bother? Part One: The Why" to explain why developer-written automated tests are important and necessary, and emphasizes how it increases the efficiency and value of manual, exploratory testing. Drafted with Fabyanna Eriksson, Jakob Alander, and Toni Lopez. Delivered immediately after the "Schibsted Testing Fixit Kick-off".
- 22 Jun 2017 » Schibsted Testing Fixit Kick-offDelivered internally at Schibsted Sverige in Stockholm. A brief talk to provide context at the beginning of the first Schibsted Testing Fixit, streamed to multiple other offices.
- 21 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Products and Technology in London. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 20 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Products and Technology in London. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests. Yes, I delivered two talks in one session.
- 20 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Products and Technology in London. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 16 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Spain in Sant Cugat del Vallès. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests. Yes, I delivered two talks in one session.
- 16 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Spain in Sant Cugat del Vallès. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 15 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Products & Technology in Oslo. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 14 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at FINN.no in Oslo. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 13 Jun 2017 » Delivered at the Software Craftsmanship Madrid Meetup in the Tuenti office. Yes, I delivered two talks in one Meetup; two and a half if you count the taste of "Part One: The Why" that I ended with. And also yes, this was the second time I gave this talk in the same day.
- 13 Jun 2017 » Delivered at the Software Craftsmanship Madrid Meetup in the Tuenti office.
- 13 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Spain in Madrid. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 12 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at Subito in Milan. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 09 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at leboncoin in Paris. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 08 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at leboncoin in Paris. The last third of the talk replaces the generic call to action with one that specifies the initiatives currently underway at Schibsted, how they fit the Rainbow of Death model, and how audience members can immediately contribute.
- 08 Jun 2017 » Delivered internally at leboncoin in Paris. This second half of the talk walks through the fundamentals of developer-written automated tests, using examples from the Unit testing in Node.js tutorial based on my slack-emoji-issues bot plugin.
- 12 May 2017 » Delivered internally at Schibsted Products & Technology in Barcelona at their "FYI Friday" event. This first half of the talk deals with all the reasons why it's vitally important that developers write automated tests.
- 04 May 2017 » Delivered at Microscope Barcelona in the Mobile World Center.
- 08 Mar 2017 » Delivered at DevOpsDays Baltimore 2017, the first DevOpsDays in Baltimore. Methodically lays out how the Testing Grouplet implemented our successful, five-year effort to drive automated testing throughout Google. The government references are removed, and it culminates in a call to action to Instigators everywhere to use the Rainbow model to make change happen for the good of the industry and society.
- 24 Jan 2017 » The second delivery of this talk that focuses on the importance of documentation and training as part of an effective culture change movement. Delivered at Royall & Company in Richmond, Virginia at the invitation of Isaac Truett. Updated to include references to The DevOps Handbook and my ./go script framework.
- 23 Sep 2016 » One last iteration on the Google and the government story presented at Surge 2016. It's mostly derived from "The Convergence of Wills (abridged)", but adds a few slides from "A Game of Tests or, A Song of Freedom and Responsibility". Probably my favorite version of the talk to date, and the last time I'll give it. The video of the talk is also available.
- 22 Sep 2016 » A completely spur-of-the-moment lightning talk pitching my go-script-bash framework at the Surge 2016 conference. May actually be my favorite talk I've ever given.
- 22 Aug 2016 » Another iteration on the Google Testing Grouplet story, this time presented at Netflix in Los Gatos, CA. Whereas "The Convergence of Wills" emphasized the need for organizations to serve their people and grant them autonomy, Netflix is known for its Freedom and Responsibility credo. Consequently, this talk emphasizes how Googlers eventually adopted common testing tools and practices willingly after the Testing Grouplet worked hard to convince them of their value.
- 16 Jun 2016 » A talk focusing on the importance of documentation and training as part of an effective culture change movement. Delivered at the Chadevs weekly lunch Meetup thanks to organizer Brett Wise, at the introduction of Allison Reedy from The Company Lab. The video of the talk is also available on the Chadevs YouTube channel.
- 14 Jun 2016 » My first time delivering the tutorial as four-day workshop, held at The Company Lab in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Each day's session was ninety minutes, and there were three groups per day (one with three, one with nine, and one with twelve). Many members of the Tennessee Valley Authority attended thanks to the efforts of Tony Harper from the TVA and Allison Reedy of The Company Lab.
- 13 Jun 2016 » A 30-minute version of the original 60-minute talk delivered at the Chattanooga, Tennessee office of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
- 09 Jun 2016 » A 30-minute version of the original 60-minute talk delivered at the DevOpsDays DC 2016 conference. The video of the talk is also available; Nathen Harvey begins to introduce me at 47:20.
- 02 May 2016 » Another retelling of the Google and government story, this time reaching to connect the same principles underlying DevOps (and good organizational management in general) with those underlying the U.S. Constitution: respecting and preserving the rights and liberty of individuals, so that they may do their best work. Delivered at the Beyond20'16 conference. The video of the talk is also available.
- 03 Nov 2015 » A brief presentation for the DC API User Group at the invitation of my colleague Gray Brooks discussing my work on the 18F Team API and related matters.
- 19 Oct 2015 » My presentation at the 2015 DevOps Enterprise Summit, connecting my Google experiences to my present experiences as a member of 18F. The video of the talk is also available.
- 06 Jul 2015 » The fourth delivery of this presentation, at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C.
- 27 May 2015 » Summarizes the configuration and implementation of the 18F Hub and 18F Pages, two Jekyll sites I've developed for 18F. Delivered at the May 27, 2015 Arlington Ruby Meetup.
- 11 Apr 2015 » The fourth delivery of this presentation, delivered as the keynote address of the 2015 Paideia conference at Christopher Newport University.
- 10 Apr 2015 » The third delivery of this presentation, delivered informally to faculty and students of the Christopher Newport University Physics, Computer Science and Engineering department.
- 12 Mar 2015 » The second delivery of this presentation, delivered as a webinar to members of the Disney Architecture Community.
- 11 Mar 2015 » Software quality matters to our security and our well-being as a society. Delivery of efficient and reliable software has become critical to the delivery of efficient and reliable government services. In this talk, I highlight automated testing concepts that are key to Agile software development, and methods of organizational influence that help create the space in which effective software, and government services, can be delivered. Delivered as a webinar to members of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- 02 Dec 2014 » The third delivery of this presentation, at the General Services Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C. The webinar video of this delivery is available on YouTube, and I wrote a brief introduction on the 18F blog (which was also syndicated to DigitalGov).
- 03 Oct 2014 » The second delivery of this presentation, at the ThoughtWorks NYC Home Office Day. This was the event for which the talk was originally commissioned.
- 25 Sep 2014 » In October 2013, the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.org website created a crisis for the Obama administration. In the wake of the successful recovery from this crisis, an opportunity has emerged to bring development practices throughout the US government up-to-date with modern industry standards. Having helped drive widespread development culture change at Google, I have been recruited to join the effort to reform government IT. In this talk, I summarize the organizational and psychological obstacles to driving adoption of automated testing at Google, the strategies and tactics the Testing Grouplet and others employed to overcome them over the course of five years, and map these experiences to the current state of affairs within the Federal government as I currently understand them. Delivered at the September 25, 2014 Automated Testing Boston Meetup.
- 29 Jul 2014 » Outline of a talk delivered in Washington, D.C. to members of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Used the same slides from the 2014-07-16 USCIS/USDS talk, but took a completely different course, starting with the "Rapid Prototyping and Unit Testing Strategy" section.
- 16 Jul 2014 » Outline of a talk delivered in Washington, D.C. to members of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services development team and US Digital Services. Described in my D.C. Trip Report blog post.
- 04 Mar 2014 » A presentation about the Apple SSL bug, aka "goto fail" first given at the March 18, 2014 Automated Testing Boston Meetup.