Enjoy the following series of interviews with the speakers, top-notch software crafters from across Europe, joining I T.A.K.E Unconference, Bucharest, 11-12 May. Discover the lessons learned and what drives them to challenge the known path in their field.
Raimo Radczewski is a freelancing software craftsman living in Berlin, Germany. He’s organizing Berlin’s Software Craftsmanship Community where he supports craftspeople with professionalizing and sharpening their skills, but also reflect on their current practices and how they can work better as teams. At #itakeunconf he will be sharing about Remote Pair-programming.
#1. Please share with us 5 things you did that helped you grow and become the professional you are today
I think the most important thing that shaped my career has been the Software Craftsmanship movement. I first went to an OpenSpace in 2012, then Coderetreats, then SoCraTes, then organizing OpenSpaces and such. The community has really supported me and helped me grow in every professional aspect I could think of.
#2. What challenges will the participants find solutions to during your session at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017?
The most challenging part of working remote is keeping an inter-human connection to the person on the other side to make up for the tools that so rarely work. It also helps to use the least-broken tools and find a structure that works for the individuals that want to pair up.
#3. Recommend for the participants 3 sources you find inspiration from and would help them better understand you
I draw most of my inspiration from visiting and organizing events in the communities. Additionally, the Software Craftsmanship Slack Team is a great place to start discussing with craftspeople all over the world.
Want to join Raimo and ~300 software crafters from around Europe?
Register now for I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017!
Programming contest @I T.A.K.E Unconference
As for every I TAKE Unconference edition, we want to give a chance to the software crafters from the audience to showcase their skills and learn more in the process. And because we appreciate passion, we offer a prize to those who convince a jury of well-known international developers that they are the most skilled in the room.
This contest is not meant to be easy. It will require you to practice beforehand, so please read the instructions carefully.
It will also require you to register before the event.
Mechanics
- IMPORTANT: Register to the contest latest one day before I TAKE Unconference by sending an email to steliana.moraru@mozaicworks.com
- On the first day of the event, after lunch, you have max 15′ to do a performing kata in front of the jury.
- The winner will be announced at the end of the second day
Constraints
To simplify the jury’s decision, the performing kata has to conform to the following constraints:
- Only the following programming languages are accepted: Java, C, C++, C#, Python, Visual Basic .NET, PHP, Javascript, Swift or Ruby
- Only solo contestants are accepted. Sorry, no pair programming this time
- The kata has to showcase refactoring skills.
- The kata has to last max. 15′
How we will judge
The jury will judge your refactoring skills.
The ideal kata looks like this – you will get maximum point if you:
- clearly state the smells you see in the code
- pick one of the smells
- clearly state your plan to fix the smell
- fix it in small, safe steps
- run tests after each step to prove you didn’t break anything
- commit after each step with a clear message explaining why you made the change
- fix as many smells as possible within the time constraint
You will loose points if you:
- make big or unsafe changes to the code
- break the behaviour after changing the code
- don’t improve the code a lot
- don’t improve the design by the end of the kata (hint: we judge design using SOLID principles and the four elements of simple design)
Recommendations
To help you, we’ve thought out what we would do if we participated to such a contest. Here’s what we recommend.
1) Use one of the following codebases for the kata:
- https://github.com/emilybache/GildedRose-Refactoring-Kata
- https://github.com/emilybache/Tennis-Refactoring-Kata
- https://github.com/emilybache/Yatzy-Refactoring-Kata
- https://github.com/emilybache/Parrot-Refactoring-Kata
2) Practice beforehand on the structure we presented for the ideal kata. Ideally find someone to practice with.
3) Watch other people refactoring. YouTube has many videos on the topic, including using the recommended code bases.
Glossary
A programming kata is a repeatable exercise used to practice specific skills.
Performing kata means doing a kata in front of an audience.
Refactoring means changing the internal structure of the code without changing its behaviour.
Impact Mapping | Patrick Baumgartner
#1. Share with us 5 things from your experience that helped you grow & become the professional you are today
- having a mentor who supports you is great and helps you to challenge your ideas and decisions
- being curious helps you to continuously learn new things
- teaching others helps you to get better on the topic and you learn how to explain things to others
- meeting continuously new people to create new ideas and get inspiration
- having enough rest so that your brain has time for recreation
#2. What challenges will the participants find solutions to during your session at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017?
#3. Recommend for the participants 3 sources you find inspiration from and would help them better understand you
- Learn from and with others, by getting involved in local / international practitioners communities. For example, we run in Zurich a monthly Software Craftsmanship Meetup with very diverse topics
- Attend conferences to get inspired by the talks and workshops, as well as the discussions with participants and other speakers.
- Take time for yourself, relax, free your mind and new ideas and thoughts will pop up automatically!
Want to join Patrick, +30 international speakers and ~300 software crafters from around Europe?
Register now for I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017!
Behaviour Driven Development with Thomas Sundberg
Thomas Sundberg is an independent consultant based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Stockholm. Thomas has been working as a developer for more than 20 years and has developed an obsession for technical excellence. This translates to Software Craftsmanship, Clean Code and Test Automation.
Cucumber JVM is a tool that allows development teams to describe how software should behave in plain text. The text is written in a business-readable domain-specific language and serves as documentation, automated test and development-aid – all rolled into one format. Cucumber JVM enables the implementation of Behaviour Driven Development in an organization that uses JVM for development.
Enjoy his presentation @ I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2014 edition.
Check out more about I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2015 or see directly the Schedule.