Format: Workshop
Duration: 60 minutes

Abstract

Working under a tight schedule creates a lot of stress. Does pair programming reduce that stress? Does TDD with its small steps deliver on the promise? Join us in a fun, forgiving yet competitive environment and find out how you, your partner and other pairs perform under stress. Race against the clock and others pairs as you solve programming problems.

Detailed description & timetable

This workshop is a prime opportunity to experience pair programming. It's also a prime opportunity to wield your mad skills with your trusted co-pair programmer against other pairs if you're of a more competitive nature.

The core of the workshop is a form of a Coding Dojo where the keyboard is switched not between a pair but between two pairs. The purpose of setting ourselves up for this kind of a face-off is to put our focus on taking small steps.

Rough outline of the workshop:

• Introduction to the format (5 min)
• Description of problem (5 min)
• Programming (40 min)
• Retrospective/Q & A/Recap (10 min)

The participating pairs will be working on a program provided by the hosts, written in Java.

Biography

Ola Ellnestam came in contact with Agile in the year 2000 after reading Extreme Programming Explained. At the time he didn't know what kind of impact that particular book would have on him and the software industry. Fueled by many new thoughts he began his Agile journey which later led him to start a company specializing in XP and Scrum. Today he is working with clients that are working with or would like to be working with Agile methods. This often puts him in situations where he has to defend, promote and question the values and practices behind Agile which he has become very familiar with. Ola is also one of the driving forces behind 'Agile Sweden', Sweden's biggest Agile network.

Lasse Koskela works as a coach, trainer, consultant and programmer, spending his days helping clients and colleagues at Reaktor Innovations create successful software products. He has trenched in a variety of software projects ranging from enterprise applications to middleware products developed for an equally wide range of domains. In the recent years, Lasse has spent an increasing amount of time giving training courses and mentoring teams on-site, helping them improve their performance and establish a culture of continuous learning. When not working with clients, Lasse hacks on open source projects, moderates discussions at JavaRanch, or writes about software development — most recently a book on Test Driven Development. He is one of the pioneers of the Finnish agile community and speaks frequently at international conferences.