Last month, we, along with Software Cornwall, hosted our annual Agile Summer Huddle!
The Agile Huddle is a 2-week intensive training programme, aiming to help programming graduates, hobbyists and enthusiasts get practical experience within a commercial Agile software development environment.
This year, we had 8 participants attending the programme held at our premises in Barncoose, Cornwall, all with different levels of experience and knowledge within the field. Some were already in software development roles, but were there to understand more about Agile methodologies, while some were still studying, but were keen to add some practical experience to their CV and improve their employability.
Throughout the 2 weeks, the ‘Huddlers’ worked in teams on a project that involved creating a web-based tool that could analyse the quality of any code uploaded to it. The aim of this tool would be to create a mini-report with a table of quality metrics about the analysed code.
The teams used Agile software development techniques such as Test Driven Development, Behaviour Driven Development and Pair Programming throughout the project, which was a totally new experience for many!
“I’d had basically no experience of software development processes before, so being exposed to professional practices meant I’ve advanced my skills greatly, and I’m excited to apply my new knowledge practically!” – Ben
At the end of the two weeks, several local companies that form part of the Software Cornwall group were invited to witness a demonstration of the project, and were encouraged to provide feedback on the work the participants had done. After this session, there was also the opportunity for the Huddlers and companies to network and discuss career opportunities too.
“I really enjoyed working as a team on a projects, because you learn a lot by doing and helping each other. I would highly recommend this programme!” – Chris
Last year’s Agile Huddle went down a huge success, with over half of last year’s attendees being hired by local software companies within 4 weeks of finishing the programme. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the talented individuals we saw this Summer too!
“It was great to learn the processes of software development, including Agile methodologies such as Pair Programming, TDD and Scrum. I will definitely be adding this experience to my CV!” – Eloi
Bluefruit are embedded software specialists based in the UK.