As my team will attest, whilst we use an agile approach to our project management, I detest the doctrine that is the Agile Movement. There’s a lot of good in amongst it, but there’s way too much jargon and cult-like following in it for my taste.

Due the complex nature of building web apps, it’s tricky to accurately estimate large projects. There are many twists and turns along the way, most noticeably when the project is speculative, or a product, or... ah, who am I kidding, they’re almost all tricky in one way or another.

Long gone are the days when tech conferences were nothing but dry talks on details of the latest technologies. Modern ways of delivering information can be entertaining as well as informative way. Attending my first Canterbury Tech Summit this year, I was pleased to find that it pitched itself at that level: the talks were consistently well-prepared and presented, with quality speakers delivering presentations that provoked thought, rather than just thrusting information at us.

If I was to draw a consistent thread through the particular talks I sat in on, it would be “Don’t hold back”. Often the speakers talked about NZ’s place in the world, and things that we can do to play better in the global arena, but it came through in other ways too.

Even with the best planning and preparation something can go wrong. Glenn Bull, founder and CEO of Skilitics, discussion at the recent Canterbury Tech Summit on how their failures helped improve the business made for an informative session.