dataTec’s Day of Modular Measurement, or M-Day for short, is geared at bringing together community members, partners, and distributors. In the absence of official regional NI events, M-Day perfectly augments the GDevCon conference and our local WUELUG which we both help organise. Of course, we were more than happy to contribute and present at the M-Day.
Innovate, Connect, and Learn
The dataTec M-Day aims to show how NI’s modular measurement technology can be the right solution thanks to its wide range of possible applications – in exciting presentations, practical application examples and expert sessions.
This year’s M-Day featured a variety of sessions that highlighted the latest developments in modular measurement and testing. The event kicked off with a keynote session on the latest advancements in the NI ecosystem, followed by several technical sessions and hands-on workshops. There were numerous networking opportunities during lunch and coffee breaks, allowing attendees to connect and share ideas.
The Truth About Continuous Integration
It is evident that in our broader software development community we all share similar struggles, particularly regarding Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). Using Mentimeter, we collected feedback from attendees about the obstacles they encounter with CI/CD. These responses highlighted common issues within the NI ecosystem.
Yes, these problems exist, but we tried to address these challenges head-on.
With his presentation on “Continuous Integration: What It Is, What It Is Not, and What It Could Be” Joerg aimed to demystify the concepts of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) within the NI ecosystem.
He explained the distinctions between Continuous Integration and branch-based development, and how to integrate server-side or local automation processes with CI. Joerg also provided an overview of CI providers such as GitLab and supporting technologies like VMs and Docker images. Additionally, he highlighted HSE’s better practices and tools used in customer projects, demonstrating practical examples of effective automation.
Workshops and Hands-On Solutions
After lunch, the audience could partake in a series of workshops on “Bring Your Own Challenges”. These workshops offered participants a unique opportunity to address their specific testing challenges by submitting them in advance. Our colleagues from Helbling Technik from Switzerland prepared the topics beforehand (shout-out to Daniela Biberstein, thank you!) and then industry experts from dataTec, partners, and NI led each session, providing targeted, expert advice and collaboratively working through solutions with participants from various sectors.
Jörg had the pleasure of leading a workshop on “Increasing Modularity Using LabVIEW Frameworks”, which turned out to be an interesting and worthwhile learning experience, not least for Joerg himself.
The hands-on session “Workflows from Instrument Bring Up to Test Automation” provided practical training on using NI software tools such as InstrumentStudio, LabVIEW, and TestStand. Participants learned how to optimize their workflows for setting up instruments, interactive troubleshooting, and creating automated test sequences, enhancing their ability to implement effective test automation in their projects.
As usual, some people just cannot find their way home, so a small group stayed after the event, shared a few drinks and continued the discussions, mostly revolving around the NI toolchain and NI-focused business.
Acknowledgements and special thanks
Huge kudos to the dataTec team for pulling off this great event. Thanks for having us, and special thanks to Laura Le Cam for tying all loose ends and making all this possible.
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