Do you know how to program?   Do you want to learn iPhone development?

We are looking for a few developers with a background in software development that would like to learn how to do iPhone/iPad and Android applications.  Agave Lab is a small company that develops mobile applications that are fun, interesting, and that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.  We’re located in Col. Americana but all of our clients are in the US.

Attitude is key in that we’ve built a really fun team and we all get along well.  The candidate will have to be flexible as our development methodology (which is based on Agile and SCRUM) is very different from a traditional waterfall approach.  We’re not too hung up on university degrees or professional background.   We’re looking for people who really enjoy coding and are genuinely interested in current web programming trends.  You can see some of the projects that we’re working on at www.agavelab.com.   Some English skills would be good but not required. You can contact us at info@agavelab.com.

(and now in Spanish)

¿Sabes como programar? ¿Quieres aprender sobre el desarrollo del iPhone?

Estamos en busca de unos pocos desarrolladores con experiencia en programacion que quieran aprender a hacer el iPhone / IPAD y aplicaciones de Android. Agave Lab es una pequeña empresa que desarrolla aplicaciones que son divertidos, interesantes y que están forzando los límites de lo que es posible. Estamos ubicados en Col. Americana, pero todos nuestros clientes están en los EE.UU..

Su actitud es importante en la que hemos construido un equipo muy divertido y todos nos llevamos bien. El candidato tendrá que ser flexible como nuestra metodología de desarrollo (que se basa en Agile Y SCRUM) es muy diferente de la metodologia “waterfall” tradicional. No estamos demasiado colgó título universitario o experiencia profesional. Estamos buscando a personas que realmente disfrutan de codificación y están realmente interesados en las actuales tendencias de programación web. Usted puede ver algunos de los proyectos que estamos trabajando en www.agavelab.com. Algunas habilidades Inglés sería pero no es necesario. Se pueda contactarnos a info@agavelab.com.

As the name implies, nearsourcing is exporting your software, design, engineering, and/or testing to someplace “near”. So where is near? In the case of Agave Lab, it’s Guadalajara, Mexico.

What’s so special about Guadalajara? Well, in turns out, a lot of things:

Surplus of Talented Engineers
Known as the “Silicon Valley of Mexico”, Guadalajara’s universities turn out more than 15,000 new IT graduates per year. These programmers are trained in the most modern programming technologies and techniques.

Time Zone
Modern programming and project management techniques require realtime collaboration. Outsourcing in Asia or Eastern Europe puts you more than 10 time-zones away. Realtime, back-and-fourth, communication just isn’t possible. At Agave Lab, we share the central US time zone, so when you’re at your desk – so are we.

Cultural and Language Affinity
Mexican software developers are fluent in English and, more importantly, we share the same cultural background and expectations – “Yes” means Yes, “No” means No, and “Tomorrow” means Tomorrow. If you’ve ever managed an outsourced project in India, you’ll recognize how important this is.

Strong IP Protection Laws
Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)NAFTA on December 17, 1992. This accord contains the most comprehensive multilateral intellectual property agreement ever concluded.

Prevailing Low Wages
Although Guadalajara generates an abundance of developer talent, the indigenous market for software projects is limited. Political pressure brought on by illegal immigration plus tighter post 9-11 security restrictions have made H1 visas for the US extremely difficult to get. With supply well exceeding demand, talented engineers are eager to work for wages that are fraction of those in the US, and well below other outsource markets.

Proximity
Every so often, an in-person meeting between stakeholders is a must. Guadalajara is a short flight from the US – about three hours from Los Angeles, and four hours from both the SF Bay area and Chicago. You can board a flight in morning, have a tasty lunch in Guadalajara, spend the afternoon meeting with the development team, and then hit the airport for the evening flight. You’re back in your office the next morning. Compare that with the 24 hour flight to Bangalore!

Agile, XP, and SCRUM
We use programming and project management techniques that are derived from Agile, Extreme Programming (XP), and SCRUM.

Realtime Visibility and Control
We offer client tools that allow you to monitor and control your project in realtime. Projects are broken down into “user stories” and then progress against these stories is updated continually by our engineers. You’ll always know exactly where things stand. You can also add, remove, change, or rearrange stories at any point. You have up-to-the-minute control over what features end up in the final release and in what order they get done.

Sprint-based Iterations
A sprint is a one week release cycle. By keeping the interval short, we maintain a tight focus on the most critical features. The end result of a Sprint is functioning, error-free, releasable product. This gives the stakeholders a chance to actually use the product which, in turn, influences the features and functionality of subsequent Sprints.

Continuos Deployment
During the Sprint, user stories are deployed to a test environment immediately upon their completion. This gives stakeholders a chance to see features in action before the end of the Sprint. This serves two purposes: First, the project owner can adjust the remainder of the Sprint based on hands-on experience, and Second, with new features appearing everyday, excitement about, and engagement in, the project remains high.

Test Driven Development
The first step in User Story development, is the creation of automated unit tests that validate the feature. After the tests are written, engineers then write the code that implements the feature. Test Driven Development has been shown to be more responsive to rapid changes in requirements while generating more reliable code.

Pair Programming
The concept is simple. Two engineers sit side-by-side and work together on the same code. With two minds continually refining, discussing, and working on the same problem set, fewer mistakes are made, difficult problems become easy, and designs are generally simpler and easier to maintain. Simply put, Pair Programming generates better code, faster.

Team Scalability
The smallest team is one pair of engineers but our approach lends itself to near linear increases in productivity as more pairs are added. Engineers often switch programing partners and the more sets of eyes on a given problem the easier it becomes. With more than three sets of pairs on a given Sprint, productivity gains become less linear due to the increased inability to parallelize. As business requirements change, team size can be quickly ramped up, or down, depending on output needs of the specific Sprint.

Built to Transfer
At the end of the engagement, the project will be transitioned to your internal team. Because our methodology requires that all work be readable by all members of the team, code tends to be more elegant, easier to understand, and have both clear in-line comments and user documentation. In addition, our engagement process gives you real-time access to all features, documentation, and code as it’s checked in.

Common themes include:
Working with clients to evolve a seed of an idea into a compelling product plan
Keeping our fees low so that our clients can afford to try take risks and try new things
A dedication to user interfaces that are clean and crisp
A belief that form should follow function
A focus on viral growth strategies
Industrial-strength code and architecture
Development processes based on Agile and Scrum

Projects That We Look for
iOS and Android
Mobile social
Feedback and reviews
Photo sharing

Interesting story on how, due to the economic crisis, mexicans living abroad in the US are “moving up the value chain” into higher paid service sector jobs.  Also, the weakening of the peso against the dollar represents a great opportunities for companies interested in outsourcing.  Read on.

So it appears that the US is sending “C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel” to Mexico to help fight the drug cartels.   From a recent NYTimes article:

“The pressure is going to be especially strong in Mexico, where I expect there will be a lot more raids, a lot more arrests and a lot more parading drug traffickers in front of cameras.”

Speaking as a gringo who lives here, thanks, but no thanks.  How much evidence do we need to conclude that the “war on drugs” is a misguided notion?  Also from the article:

“the number of deaths in Mexico is proof positive that the strategy is working and that the cartels are being weakened,”

How’s that?  More violence is a good thing?  If this is progress, I can do without it.  Since Mexico began “cracking down” on the cartels, drug sales have gone through the roof.  And now we’re adding drones, Blackhawk helicopters, and private contractors to the mix?   If memory serves, that didn’t work so well in Iraq or Afganistan.   I have a better idea:  if the US wants mexico to stop selling it drugs, perhaps the US should stop buying them.

Tienes skills de programación y quieres aprender a desarrollar apps para iPhone?

Vamos a juntarnos en el Black Sheep en la col. Americana Sábado (14 Mayo) de 2pm a 4pm. Durante la sesión:

-Daremos una introducción sobre el proceso de desarrollo para iPhone/iPad.
-Desarrollaremos una app sencilla para iOS, crearemos una distribución AdHoc y la instalaremos directamente en los dispositivos.
-Cerveza
-???
-PROFIT.

Si tienes tu propia Macbook (Intel based), y quieres instalar XCode previamente, puedes traerla y seguir el proceso de desarrollo de la app en la sesión. Si no, puedes ver el proceso en la mac de alguien mas.

Será un grupo reducido (limitado a los primeros 8 interesados) y será completamente informal.

La cerveza será gratis la primera media hora, se puntual.

Esperamos verte este sábado a las 2 en el Black Sheep. Mándanos un correo (andy@agavelab.com) y déjanos saber que estarás ahí para reservar tu lugar.

Happy Coding,

Agave Lab.