by dkblinux98
Who is Kent Beck?
8:30 pm in Floss Weekly by dkblinux98
On my desk at work I have a Doodle Pro that I received as a secret santa gift last Christmas. I have gotten way more than its money’s worth out of this little gift. On some regular but random basis I place a short statement or question or phrase on the board generally inspired by a podcast I’ve listened to on my 1+ hour commute into work. Since I receive regular visits to my desk, the writing on my Doodle Pro tends to spark several interesting discussions on the topic at hand providing a welcome diversion from the usual problems and issues such visitors bring.
At work I’m responsible for the infrastructure which runs our .com products. We have a team of developers who are responsible for creating and maintaining the code which drives these products. We practice the Agile development process. So this week’s question posed to my visitors was inspired by Floss Weekly Episode 87 where Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz interviewed Kent Beck, author of “Test Driven Development: By Example”.
As various developers stood at my desk and read the question “Who is Kent Beck?” we discussed the merits of test driven development where each development project begins with building every test case the developer(s) can envision and then program to pass those tests. We also discussed Kent’s team approach to development which he calls “paired programming” where developers write programs in pairs sharing one keyboard, mouse and computer. There was mixed enthusiasm for these approaches to development. But most of those who read the question were in favor of the concepts.
Episodes
Glad to see our show was inspiring for your work situation! Thanks for talking about it!
You’re welcome!
I’m working on getting better about taking the time to blog about all of the moments of inspiration I receive from podcasts such as FLOSS Weekly. I’ve been writing messages on my Doodle Pro for nearly a year now. I just recently got the idea to take a picture of the message to encourage me to blog about the subject at hand. The folks I work with have been asking me to write summary blog posts on the podcasts for several months now. This latest “Doodle Pro” tactic seems to be working the best to motivate me. I still haven’t yet gotten to the point where I have the time to write more in-depth posts. Soon I hope.
I appreciate FLOSS Weekly, you, Jono and Leo very much and the inspiration your podcast provides has literally changed the course of this department. Keep it coming!