Sessions you should attend at Mendix World 2.0 as Mendix lead developer

10 years ago I joined the Mendix Community as Mendix consultant/trainer. And the fun of creating apps with Mendix started. At that time, we just had the Mendix Modeler and from 2010 perspective it was pretty awesome. All the apps you could build in a few clicks. Although often developers attending the training courses, they could be sometimes skeptical. Modeling an app couldn’t be up to par with their coding skills and abilities. Which turned around during their first experience with Mendix. Seeing that they could use their existing knowledge and skills to model and extend the apps with even more awesomeness.

Fast forward to 2020, just for fun I installed the Mendix Modeler 2.5.0 release of 2010. And I tried to model an app, like I am used to do now. Well, I can do tell you that the perspective has changed the last 10 years. Not a surprise, knowing that the wizards of Mendix R&D are stretching the boundaries each day. During Mendix training courses, the skeptical mode got replaced by “Tell me more” and “How can we adopt low code in our application landscape?”.

What does this have to do with you as a Mendix lead developer? In my role as Mendix trainer and coach, I work with a lot of Mendix lead developers. And as a lead developer you have two major challenges; having a top-notch team and leading them by staying up to date with the latest technology.

And since Mendix is cranking out awesome stuff each month that’s a fine job.

The last edition of Mendix World in 2019 was a great experience. The number of attendees, packed for the main stage, waiting for all the new Mendix stuff to come. You could feel the tension in the air. The keynote of Johan den Haan where he shared Mendix’s vision on how AI will evolve from assistance towards contribution to application development, was intriguing. It really shifted my mind and showed me the future which will come. it’s not the question if, but when and how it will come. And Mendix is leading the way for low-code development.

Also, the introduction and demo’s on native mobile really impressed me and opened another window of opportunities. The way Mendix integrated native app development with their existing webbased app development is just out of this world.

Now that Mendix World 2.0 is nearing, I’m looking forward to seeing what Mendix will come up this year. Especially the online format will add a new touch to it. Giving us the ability to join all sessions you want, without standing at the back.

Let me share which sessions I will attend this year to up my lead developer game.

Recruiting and Mentoring a Top-Notch Mendix App Development Team

That is where it all starts, having a top-notch team. Having the right team in place can make or break the success of your (low-code) project. Looking forward learning more of Mendix’ perspective on how a Mendix team should look like. How to hire the right people for your team. And how to mentor new team members. How can you encourage team self-growth? And of course, seeing Simone & Eric on fire will be great as always.

Technology for Managing Mendix Development Teams: Collaboration, Source Control

Next up will be this session. Having a top-notch team is a good start, though how will you enable them to collaborate? In my opinion, collaboration is key to success. Collaboration tools for the team to work on/with user stories, discussions, release management are indispensable to make it a success. I’m curious to learn what Mendix will deliver coming months to empower collaboration in Mendix projects!

Implementing a QA Process For App Efficiency

Don’t we all know “Testing in production”? It is a concept that is easy to implement, it also proved that it is not suited for the delivery of high-quality software. I hope to learn in this session more about the Mendix Quality Assurance Suite. How this can assure the quality of the Mendix dev team output? Delivering high-quality software in a low-code development process. And to ensure that QA isn’t an afterthought or seen as an annoying distraction.

Pairing Governance with Development, From One App to Full Scale

In all the years I worked w/ Mendix I have seen a lot of companies starting with a single Mendix app. After being successful with this app, another Mendix app was implemented. And this continued in such a way that they ended up with a multiple Mendix app landscape. Individually all good apps. Contributing to the business in their own way. But that’s where the governance pain starts. a single app approach isn’t suited for a multiple app landscape.

For example, maintaining the global UX for multiple apps, so that business users have the same experience across all applications requires a though through design process and supporting technology. on the other side of the spectrum, you will be confronted with the delivery process, monitoring, and maintenance of all these apps.

My goal of attending this session is to learn more about the tools and advice Mendix has for both the process and technology side when scaling up from single apps to a true Mendix app factory. Running a multiple Mendix app landscape.

I invite you to join me during these Mendix World sessions and lead your pack. Let me know what you think by getting in touch with me!

You can find me in Slack @Rene van Hofwegen, but you have to register first. Sign up now and we can start chatting about how great it’s going to be. See you there!