Quotes from QCon

One of the funny things of this QCon is the many tweets that the attendees have been throwing into the world wide web. That's great for a speaker because now they get immediate feedback on their performance, both good and bad. These are some of the quotes I found funny, inspiring or refreshing:

On testing

• Just because you have automated tests doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing manual testing (Martin Fowler)

• Test is not a phase… (Martin Fowler)

On tools & deployment

• Beware!... a fool with a tool is still a fool (Martin Fowler)

• If it hurts,do it more often,and bring the pain forward (Martin Fowler)
• How long would it take your org to deploy a 1 single line of code change (Mary & Tom Poppendieck)
• If you're able to adapt, test and deploy a change very quickly, you don't have to worry too much about risk (Dan North)

• Adam Messinger from oracle didn't show up to talk about the future of java. What's the message there?

About architecture

• The structure of your architecture will reflect the structure of your organization (Dan North)
• If you don't mind being called in the middle of the night, then it's an error. Otherwise it's a warning (Dan North)
• WADL (web application description language) is people coming from the SOAP world putting their sofas on the porch, reducing property value for everyone else (attendee)

About Agile and product management

• Agile is a methodology to get mediocre developers to screw up less (Dan North)
• Lots of concern about blindly following agile in Agile Track at #qconsf. one gotta understand the underlying ideas (Cecilia Fernandes, attendee)
• You get what you measure (Dan North)
• If you're not embarrassed by your first product, you shipped too late (Patrick Copeland)
• Build the right product instead of building the product right (Patrick Copeland)
• Even if organizational constraints seem to be hard, be skeptical and discuss it (Dan North)
• Not screwing other teams is a requirement of your software (Attendee)
• When you solve problem #1, problem #2 gets a promotion (Attendee)
• Most fear is irrational, so we can learn how to get rid of that (Dan North)
• Teaching is creating an environment in which people can learn (if they want) (Dan North)

About other attendees

• Okay, if your whole purpose at #qconsf is to argue with the presenter, sign up to present next year and tell everyone your view", about an Italian guy going against the speaker on both tutorial days
• Oh good, loud clicking external keyboard guy is here again this year

About the conference

• Haha @martinfowler screaming at vendors in #continuousdelivery presentation at #qconsf was pretty funny.

• Ideas are worthless (Patrick Copeland)

• I'm almost a top model, so I can date anyone I want" (Guilherme)

• Its your decision, live with the company culture or leave…

• Amazing how quickly the #qconsf crowd tore though the ice cream bars
• Coffee: A mild stimulant popular as a late-afternoon refreshment at software development conferences.