Know Your Enemy: Understanding AntiPatterns

The ancient Chinese warrior Sun Tzu taught his men to “know your enemy” before going into battle. For us, the same thing is knowing and understanding anti-patterns - things that we repeatably do that produce negative results. Anti-patterns are used by developers, architects, and managers every day, and are one of the main factors that prevent progress and success. In this session we will look at some of the more common and significant software development anti-patterns. Through coding and design examples, you will see how these anti-patterns emerge, how to recognize when the antipattern is being used, and most importantly, how to avoid them. Although most of the coding examples will be in Java, this is a technology-agnostic session. Remember, like motorcycles, anti-patterns are everywhere - so be careful out there!

Agenda

• Know Your Enemy: An Introduction to AntiPatterns
• Know Yourself: Human Traits That Cause AntiPatterns
• A Tour of the Dark Side: Common Software Development AntiPatterns

For each anti-pattern covered in this session we will look at the symptoms of the anti-pattern, what the effects are, and some techniques on how to avoid the anti-pattern.