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Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session


Ray Houston and I will be hosting/facilitating a CodingDojo-style, Randori-style TDD session in early February here in Austin, TX.

(EDIT: Shoot, I forgot to mention that this idea came from David Laribee and Scott Bellware (no linkage currently available). I'd like to thank them for their ideas and encouragement)

We have several venues we're currently working out the details with and we'll post more info when we've finalized the location.

It will likely be Saturday February 2 or Saturday February 9, 2008.

Our plan is this:

  • Half-day, compressed session (though if there's enough interest, we may go full-day, but that remains to be seen)
  • Building a very simple application focused on accomplishing a few user stories (NOT getting bogged down in the finer points of doing WinForms or WebForms development, we may use ASP.NET MVC, but I'd like to avoid muddying the waters with too much new technology all at once and distracting from the main focus: TDD)
  • Several micro-iterations of design and coding
  • We thinking about having a few more than the recommended 15 folks (like 25-30), but limiting the coding time of people stepping up to code so that you don't get code hogs
  • Rather than a hard-and-fast 5 minute switch time, I was thinking more of a fishbowl/hot-seat style where, if you think you can do better, you hold up a card and take over, but you can only do it once every iteration so that you don't get code hogs

We're still shaking out all the details and we're open to suggestions/criticisms, etc.

Please contact Ray or me via our blogs' contact forms or post a comment here if you're interested and/or would like to help in some way.

Kick It on DotNetKicks.com
Posted Jan 05 2008, 07:46 AM by chadmyers

Comments

Alan Stevens wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-05-2008 10:50 AM

Chad, this sounds like a great antidote to "technotainment."  Has anyone tried this within their team as an alternative to code reviews?

++Alan

Kevin Miller wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-05-2008 11:29 AM

This is simply goodness. It is very hard to really get TDD until you see it in action. I may have a scheduling conflict but I would love to attend.

Joe Ocampo wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-06-2008 2:44 AM

Count me in!  Do we get to wear Gui's?

Ray Houston's Blog wrote Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-06-2008 9:07 AM

Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session

Brian Donahue wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-06-2008 5:21 PM

Hey Chad - I have been thinking about doing this with Philly ALT.NET.  Your post has given me some food for thought, thanks!  I'm sure you will, but please let us know how it turns out.

DotNetKicks.com wrote TDD CodingDojo session in Austin, TX
on 01-06-2008 7:09 PM

You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

bogardj wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-08-2008 6:47 PM

Yeah this should be fun!

Steve Donie wrote re: Announcing an Austin TDD Randori/CodingDojo Session
on 01-09-2008 9:44 PM

We've been talking about doing this at work - if I am not on vacation I might be able to come. Would love to see someone else do this before I do. Or if we get started before then, I'll bring some ideas.

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