Labor day has come and gone and that means we're gearing up for two things in the office:  football season and Software Development Best Practices 2008 . One’s work, the other’s play, right?  Well, maybe, but software development is a team sport—from the project managers to business analysts to the developers and testers— and software crosses many hands on its way to the user.

Building Better Teams

Just as in any team sport, a cohesive team is crucial for success. And effective teams were at the top of our mind when the advisory board and conference team built this year’s program. You’ll find courses on managing and building teams across the curriculum, in such tracks Agile Processes & Methods , Requirements & Analysis or People, Projects &Teams , taught by some of the leading experts in the software development world. Here are a few courses you won’t want to miss:

    *  Fog Creek Software Founder Joel Spolsky’s keynote outlines how teams create decent products that often fail in the marketplace—and offers his perspective on how you can avoid such a fate for your software.

    * Management and Communication Expert Naomi Karten is back teaching her popular tutorial “Introverts and Extraverts in the Workplace.” Karten, in the 3-hour session, outlines tips to aid the outgoing and not better communicate, while dispelling preconceived misconceptions and stereotypes and teaching techniques to promote teamwork.

    * Management Consultant and Author Johanna Rothman’s tutorial “Coaching Your Peers and Staff to Excellence” provides guidance on how to effectively coach and inspire your team. Whether you’re struggling with balancing increased management responsibility, a more agile team or both, Rothman’s guidance can help you coach your team to success.

Building Better Software

But what about software, you may ask? What does SDBP offer that will help you move your development project toward the goal line? (Groan!)

With 140+ sessions (90% of which are new or completely updated), this year's conference provides advice and instruction on both cutting-edge and core technologies, tools and languages. You'll find such courses as:

    *  SD veteran and Net Objective's Fellow Ken Pugh will present "Concurrency in Ruby,"   which examines how this popular language can be used effectively in concurrent programming.

    * C++ Gurus Dan Saks and Stephen Dewhurst's full-day tutorial, " Sooner Rather than Later: Static Coding Techniques for C++" is just one of offering in 4 days of comprehensive training for C++ aficianados.

    * Serena Software's Brian Carroll will be teaching "Practical Realities of Mashup Security" offering tips and real-world remedies to keep your enterprise secure in Web 2.0 and beyond world.

Those were some of my top picks from this year's conference, but there are  136 other sessions, in 10 tracks, to choose from.  Stay tuned for more details from me, the advisory board and speakers--but now I have to work on my Just-f0r-Fun-Football Pool picks gear up for tomorrow's games.  (Geaux LSU!!!)