InfoQ recently published an interview with Joshua Bloch, who is the author of “Effective Java”– an updated second edition was released, which includes some tips with dealing with Java’s generics, autoboxing, and annotations, to name a few.

“Effective Java” is one of the best books I’ve ever read regarding the Java language and has served me well over the years– the second edition also appears to follow suit. InfoQ also has a sample chapter available, which focuses on Generics and already I’ve found it helpful.

Don’t forget to read the interview as well– the author has some great insights into refactoring and Java in general. My favorite part of the interview was this exchange:

Do you believe that other tools and processes such as unit testing, Test-driven development or pair programming also aid in programming effectively in Java?

Joshua’s response is right on:

Absolutely. Unit testing is key. And writing your tests first is a great thing. Pair programming works very well for some people, as do variants such as “buddy programming” (where you show your code to someone else after you’ve written it, and refactor as necessary together). Writing code in a vacuum is bad thing. Code reviews (which I view as another variant) are essential…

If you don’t have a copy of Joshua’s book, pick one up as soon as possible– your users will thank you!

InformIT has published a Q&A with Stelligent’s CTO, Paul Duvall. Paul shares his thoughts on adopting CI, the future of CI, and of course, his thought provoking blog entry. Check it out!

On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the Jolt Awards ceremony where Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk was a finalist….and WON for best technical book!

Stelligent’s own, Paul Duvall, and co-author, Steve Matyas were on to hand to accept the trophy- which is essentially a giant can of Jolt cola encased in a Lucite block. You have to see it in person- the design is very cool (and it’s heavy!).

Many congratulations to Paul, Andy, and Steve; as well as the contributors, editors, and publishers who brought this book to life! This year’s winners will be featured in the June 2008 issue of Dr. Dobb’s Journal.

February promises to be a Groovy month as a coterie of forward thinking individuals are coming to discuss all things related to Groovy and the future of Java.

The Groovy/Grails Exchange will feature a multitude of concurrent tracks on Groovy and Grails development for the Java platform. There’s a great lineup of sessions scheduled featuring Groovy and Grails project core committers; including Grails project lead Graeme Rocher, author and speaker Scott Davis, core committer Jeff Brown, and many other groovy folks!

Stelligent’s own, Andrew Glover, will be speaking about Behavior-driven development with Groovy and using Groovy’s Gant for building Java applications. If you want to have your finger on the pulse of Java then you should consider attending!

We’re hiring! Come work for the fastest growing Agile consultancy in the mid-Atlantic region. We’re seeking Senior Consultants with Java experience for immediate Agile consulting work.

As a Senior Consultant for Stelligent, you will help transform customer teams through Agile methodologies, build expertise in the latest tools and technologies, and work closely with established Agile experts.

We are currently seeking candidates with:

• At least three years of Java development experience
• Experience in all phases of the software lifecycle
• Ability to work and communicate in diverse client environments
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies (Scrum and XP)
• Experience with test driven development (TDD), developer testing frameworks and continuous integration (CI)

Stelligent values team players that are interested in other people and new knowledge, open about exchanging ideas and practical in applying skills towards solving problems.

If this sounds like you, contact us today and tell us why you want to be a part of our team!

If you’re local to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, you’re going to want to clear your calendar the evening of Thursday, February 21st to join Stelligent at their roundtable on test-driven development (TDD). The evening will feature complimentary hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a candid discussion on TDD fundamentals, why it’s more than just unit testing, and how to embrace it in your organization.

When: Thursday, February 21st from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Windows on Minnesota (50th Floor of the IDS Center)

Whether you’re a TDD advocate (or working on a team that has yet to adopt the practice), everyone will come away with a better understanding of the advantages, as well as the challenges, based on experiences gained in real-world projects.

Space is limited so please RSVP no later than February 14th.

Does your organization actively practice test-driven development (TDD)? Chances are, the answer is no- at least based on the results of a survey distributed at Stelligent’s TDD roundtable, which found that the majority (84%) of the survey respondents aren’t practicing TDD, and 79% said they do not measure code coverage for development projects.

Interested in gaining insight on the findings, Colleen Frye of SearchSoftwareQuality.com wrote a great article, “Barriers remain for test-driven development” asking several of the roundtable attendees why TDD wasn’t being practiced and what it would take to get organizations to do it.

When asked to elaborate on why the adoption is still slow going, Bobby Pantall, Lead Technology Consultant at CC Pace Systems Inc., remarked:

Organizations haven’t been sufficiently informed of the business benefits of TDD. In our experience, there is a popular misconception that it’s wasteful to spend so much time writing tests instead of pure functionality.

Luke Majewski, Director of Application Architecture at Intalgent, added:

The common thread when we have this discussion with other developers is their companies don’t do it because it doesn’t make sense financially. It isn’t until you complete a project fully, with good test coverage, that you really appreciate what it does.

What are your thoughts? Is your organization practicing TDD? If not, why?

SDTConf 2007 is rapidly approaching and will be held at Penn State on November 30th through December 2nd. This is a free conference and much like CITCON, is also run as an open spaces event. With guys like PJ, Brian Marick, and Ron Jeffries attending, this should be an excellent weekend! Plus, Stelligent is also a sponsor so sign up today!

Over the course of a few years a number of build automation tools have surfaced. One tool that is widely accepted as a standard in the Java community is Ant, a cross-platform build tool that uses an XML file format.

Ant’s attractiveness stems from its ease-of-use and ability to be seamlessly extended with custom capabilities. Plenty of people know how to use Ant and there is a broad ecosystem of tools and support around it. On the other hand, given the nature of the XML syntax, Ant is occasionally limited when it comes to expressiveness. As a result, build tools based on an existing scripting language have entered the scene.

One such tool, Raven, a build platform built on top of Ruby, leverages the power of a full-featured programming language with the simplicity of a build-centric Domain Specific Language. Paul Duvall describes this in the latest installment of his “Automation for the people” series,

“In particular, Raven enables dependency-based tasking with a full-featured imperative programming language (rather than a declarative one like XML).”

In addition to expanding on the benefits of Raven including demonstrating two approaches to getting Raven installed and configured, his article, “Build Java projects with Raven” also illustrates the relationship between Raven and Rake. If you’re looking for a tool that enables you to utilize the power and flexibility of the Ruby language within a build script, check out the article first, then check out Raven.

Learn about the other installments of “Automation for the people”, a series of articles dedicated to exploring the practical uses of automating software development processes and teaching you when and how to apply automation successfully.

In our first, “Share your TDD horror stories” event last Tuesday, October 30th, the turnout was quite “spooktacular”. It was the Stelligent staff who came dressed in costumes for the occasion, but it was the non-dressed in attendance that put on a good show in conversation around TDD scares.

One theme that was hammered throughout the night was that expertise in TDD begins to materialize at the point where the developer realizes that it’s not about testing, but about defining behavior.

Another observation I found interesting was that TDD design work encourages the reduction of cyclomatic complexity (CC); ultimately making test fixtures more readable and maintainable….and as Andrew Glover noted earlier this year:

Projects that carry out TDD will find their code bases are rarely flagged for high cyclomatic complexity values.

You’ll want to check out the results from a survey we handed out– I wasn’t surprised to find out that 84% in attendance said that their organization does NOT actively practice TDD. The most likely culprit in the adoption rate is the general resistance to change; those who prefer the comfort of the tried and tested. To help pacify this opposition, basic education is key before most will be able to initiate/succeed with it.

Many thanks to everyone for coming and a special thanks to Savoy-Lee for the terrorific selection of fine wines.