Even though there is a huge amount of material on this topic, the problem of maintainable, sustainable and successful software development is not yet solved. So it is important to have events dedicated to this topic, where people can learn about and collaborate on how to deal with the problem of building the right thing on the right way, and how to push for finding better solutions. We wanted to have a conference dedicated specifically to this topic, this is why we started to organise Craft in 2014. Our next event will be held on April 26-29: on the first two days we will have workshops, and the next two days will be session days.
Why is this important for companies?
The importance of software delivery craftsmanship is increasing constantly. Software development made right can unlock a lot of hidden potential in organizations, Craft can help companies to understand how important it is to invest in the way they develop: not just into engineering but into the whole value generation process. Great engineering is not enough, whole company level agility is necessary. Nowadays only those companies can survive and thrive in the long term which can change and adapt quickly. Those that have growing and experimental mindset. To achieve these goals companies need to focus on and invest into software delivery craftsmanship.
Is Craft only for software engineers?
No, Craft has a wider focus, our goal is not just to improve engineering but also to change the way companies reason about creating value for the customers. We created an event where any type of engineers, team leaders, agile coaches, engineering managers, executives/founders, UX/product people could learn a lot. To achieve this goal from year to year we invite a really unique speaker line-up:
http://craft-conf.com/2016#speakers.
Craft has three main pillars
Language agnostic methods, best practices (tdd, bdd, ddd, ci, cd, security, performance, service oriented architecture etc.) that can be successfully leveraged by individual engineers. They can learn how to become better in their profession, how they can be more useful from a business point of view (even the most beautiful code worths nothing without representing real business value).
Team and organisational level topics, best practices (agile, devops etc.) that can help companies work more effectively. This includes a diverse set of topics, like how to scale development, how to create great company culture, how to create growing/innovation mindset, how to create an experimental culture, agile/lean practices etc. It is not easy to evolve from a great engineer to a great leader, Craft will provide great tips on this topic as well.
New trends, emerging technologies, some interesting academic topics (containerisation, functional programming, languages, distributed systems, CRFTs, newsql etc.) that are increasingly important to be familiar with.
Who are behind the conference?
Originally there are two Hungary based startups behind Craft: Ustream and Prezi, and in 2015 Ericsson joined to the organiser team. Our goal is to get the best speakers around the World to help Budapest become an innovation HUB of Europe. We started to organize international conferences three years ago, and we have many sold-out, world-class events (mloc.js, RAMP, Stretch, Redefine, Amuse, Crunch) under our belt, some of them were named one of the best conferences in Europe by TechCrunch.