The Essence of Agile
The first Annual Essay Competition from Software Education
As part of the celebrations for Software Education's 20th anniversary, we're announcing an essay competition. Right now, the buzz in the world of software development is “agile”. This year, Software Education will run approximately 200 courses within the agile category.
Starting in the 1990s with approaches such as eXtreme Programming from Kent Beck, and followed by the highly influential “Agile Manifesto” in 2001, agile captures a range of ideas, techniques, methods and management practices for running projects using an adaptive approach. But how would you describe the essence of agile? We're looking for 1,500 words or less that best captures “The Essence of Agile”, as it applies to the world of software development.
Software Education has a strong history of contributing to the software industry at large, and in that spirit the competition is open not just to customers of Software Education, but everyone who shares our passion for building better software (see notes 4 and 5 below).
The deadline for submitting your essay is 30 November 2010. The winner will be announced by the end of January 2011.
Judging will be by a distinguished international panel, including Jim Highsmith (USA), Suzanne Robertson (UK), Professor Philippe Kruchten (Canada) and Shane Hastie (NZ).
The first prize is an A$4,000 training credit with Software Education and an A$1,500 travel voucher. Second prize is an A$2,000 training credit and an A$750 travel voucher (or the same amounts in NZD, if the winner(s) is in New Zealand). In addition, the first prize winner will be invited to present (all expenses paid) at Software Education's SDC conference in March 2011.
The fine print (entry is conditional on acceptance of these conditions):
| 1 | The essays must be submitted, along with the author(s) name(s), postal address, contact email and telephone number, to  no later than 5pm (Australian EST time) on Tuesday 30 November 2010. |
| 2 | The essays must be independent, original work that has not been published elsewhere (inc. in electronic media). |
| 3 | The competition is open globally but note the comment below re the training prize. If the winner(s) reside outside of Australia/NZ, the travel voucher will be in the local currency equivalent of the amounts stated above. |
| 4 | The competition is not open to Software Education staff or contract trainers, or to staff or contractors associated with other organisations that offer IT training, with the exception of universities. |
| 5 | The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. |
| 6 | It is a condition of this competition that Software Education may publish the names and photographs of the top two prize winners in publicity about the competition. |
| 7 | It is a condition of this competition that the essays become the property of and may be republished by Software Education. Essays that do not make the “top ten” will be returned to the authors or deleted. |
| 8 | Please address any questions |
(Note - Software Education delivers publicly scheduled training for the software development professional in Australia and New Zealand only. Travel, accommodation and living costs for course attendance are not paid by Software Education, which may limit the prize appeal for those residing outside of Australia / NZ).
