SoCraTes UK

162 Followers
7 Following
195 Posts

International Software Craft and Testing Unconference.

We organise a conference in the UK, and some online events

Websitehttps://socratesuk.org
Next dates18th-21st June 2026
GitHubhttps://github.com/organizations/SoCraTesUK
Duncan McGregor has been a professional software developer for 35 years. He was lucky enough to be an early adopter of Object Oriented programming, which was the gateway drug to patterns, Extreme Programming, agile and lean. He coauthored Java to Kotlin: A Refactoring Guidebook. These days he is mostly retired, but still produces a weekly YouTube video. He has tried almost anything in his quest for better software, including, but not limited to, actually talking to people.

And that’s not all! Here’s the full programme (more: https://socratesuk.org/training_day.html):

* @emilybache - Controlling Legacy Code with Approval Tests
* @lisihocke - Secure development lifecycle
* Gemma Cameron - Bringing User Stories to Life (@ruby_gem)
* @claresudbery - Using TDD to get Better Results from LLMs/AI
* Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
* Duncan McGregor & @natpryce - Extreme Refactoring
* Tim Ottinger - Value Stream Mapping (@tottinge)

SoCraTes UK - Training Day

Where else could you go to get in-person teaching from such a fab group of trainers? The @SoCraTes UK CIC unconference’s Training Day (in the UK near London from June 18th, links in comments) includes Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce, with their session “I Suppose This Is My Life Now - Mercilessly Refactoring AI Code”.

We’re all about the craft at SoCraTes. But just guessing the next thing the average developer would type doesn’t meet our coding standards. And sometimes we like to have some fun.

@natpryce has been programming for \<coughty-cough\> years, across many languages, platforms, application domains and industries. He enjoys sharing programming tips, tricks and techniques. He co-authored the books "Java to Kotlin: A Refactoring Guidebook" and "Growing Object­-Oriented Software Guided by Tests".
Join @natpryce and Duncan in this two-hour workshop where we’ll let the AI do the initial grunt work so that we have more time to polish. First we’ll generate a game of snake; maybe even the tests. We could ship that, but it’s beneath us. How good could the code be? Duncan has a theory that Snake could be really pure, with only the single side effect of drawing the game state to the screen. Let’s refactor to find out.
Heads up for those who want to apply for an ETA for #socratesuk. An ETA costs £16. It will cost £20 to apply for an ETA from 8 April 2026.

The Training Day is back! The @SoCraTes_UK ‘26 unconference is in the UK near London from June 18th (links in thread), and we’re excited to announce we will be joined by Gemma Cameron, with her session “Hands-on: Bringing User Stories to Life”.

The hardest thing about software development is sharing ideas and understanding your users. What are we making, who is it for, what problems do they currently have, how can we fix them, how will they feel? What could go wrong for them?

User stories have become boring tasks written in gherkin syntax. How can the ideas and feelings be shared in such a simple way that even your family and friends will understand your product and its benefits? How can you understand the context the user is operating in? How can you build a system for them that helps rather than hinders in their workflow? How can you plan your system for when things go wrong?

We've got a fun thing for you to try in this workshop: Comics!

Gemma's work focuses on bridging the gap between business and engineering teams, with a particular interest in people, ways of working, and making complex ideas practical and usable. Alongside her consulting work, she writes about engineering culture, hiring, and team development on https://rubygem.blog

If that doesn't interest you, she has a whole cheese joke routine and a wealth of ferret facts.

Gemma Cameron

Tech and Business Consultant

Gemma Cameron

And that’s not all! Here’s the full programme (more: https://socratesuk.org/training_day.html):

* @emilybache - Controlling Legacy Code with Approval Tests
* @lisihocke - Secure development lifecycle
* Gemma Cameron - Bringing User Stories to Life (@ruby_gem)
* @claresudbery - Using TDD to get Better Results from LLMs/AI
* Jon Jagger - TDD with Cyber-dojo
* Duncan McGregor & @natpryce - Extreme Refactoring
* Tim Ottinger - Value Stream Mapping (@tottinge)

SoCraTes UK - Training Day