Hands-on: Introduction to TDD

Yesterday, I participated to the "Hands-On: Introduction to TDD" event organized by the Cambridge Software Craftsmanship community.

I paired with a C# guy and we tried to apply TDD principles in order to solve a toy problem but after one hour we didn't get too further. After that we had a interesting discussion sharing our feelings about TDD in general, how to approach it and what are the advantages and the disadvantages.

This is a picture taken in the middle of our coding activity :)

This is a summary of what I learnt:

• TDD is hard and it is difficult to find a master of TDD
• TDD is impossible to learn using a toy problem
• What is the simplest but complex enough problem to solve that allows to understand the power of TDD?
• I have to learn more about ReSharper!
• My mate was much more quicker than me :)

Regardless of TDD, I believe that the most useful element in order to become a better professional is pair programming. It is extremely useful to see different approaches in solving problems, different ways of working, different tools, different shortcuts and so on. 

I am looking forward to do more pair programming in the future!

DotNetToscana 2012 Spring Events

In this post, I would like to announce the next events organised by my .NET community in Italy called DotNetToscana.
The next 17th March 2012 there will be the "Windows Phone 7 3D Lab". In this lab, Nicola Baldi is introducing how to develop a 3D game in XNA using the Windows Phone platform. During the lab, a simple but real game will be created step by step in order to learn all the main important aspects of creating a game. The event will be in Pisa, Italy. You can find more information on the DotNetToscana official website.

In April 19th, instead, there will be an important event in collaboration with Microsoft called Start Something! Tour – Windows 8 e Windows Phone 7.5. This day is created for people that want to create and test their applications on Windows Phone (in partnership with Nokia) and/or on Windows 8 Tablets. This is not a step by step lab, but a way to bring passionate developers together and build awesome software with the help of the Microsoft experts and the DotNetToscana stuff members. You can find more information on the DotNetToscana official website.

We have already an idea for an event in May but it is too early to say something... stay tuned :)

I am constantly giving my contribution in order to make these events a success but I am a little sad that I will not be able to participate this time. As you know, I am now living in UK and I can't always be present to all of our events. Anyway, I am very proud to be part of this growing community and I am sure that over time will become the reference point for .NET professionals in Tuscany.

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Windows Phone Camp in London

 Next 17 September will be a full immersion day of Windows Phone 7 Mango

Coding under pressure with TDD/BDD – Fantastica giornata

Ieri ho partecipato ad un originale evento open-space su TDD/BDD a Cambridge organizzato da Alan Hemmings e guidato da Alan Dean, il Chairman di ALT.NET UK nonche’ l’inventore degli Open Spaces Coding Days.

E’ stato davvero un fantastico evento e voglio condividere con voi la giornata.

Luogo
L’evento si e’ tenuto all’interno di una piccola azienda agile chiamate “The Agile Workshop”. Ringrazio Ronnie Barker e Stephen Oakman per l’accogliente ospitalita’ e la condivisione della loro profonda esperienza.

La mattina – Discussioni aperte
Prima di tutto a turno ci siamo presentati e abbiamo espresso le nostre aspettative per l’evento che si stava per svolgere. In questo modo Alan ha creato sulla lavagna un elenco puntato dei temi principali di discussione. Fatto questo abbiamo analizzato i vari punti e li abbiamo raggruppati in sezioni che alla fine erano praticamente due. Abbiamo quindi formato due gruppi di discussione indipendenti cercando di rispondere e condividere le proprie esperienze sui punti individuati. Fatto questo poi abbiamo unito tutti i gruppi e tratto alcune considerazioni finali. A turno ci e’ stato chiesto quale fossero le cose portate a casa da questa discussione.

Pranzo
La discussione ovviamente e’ continuata a pranzo in un pub inglese.

Il pomeriggio – Laboratorio
I temi di discussioni e una votazione preliminare hanno fatto emergere l’interesse di creare due laboratori paralleli:

• Laboratorio base di TDD
• Laboratorio avanzato di TDD/BDD

Sono stati nominati due persone per guidare ciascuno dei laboratori.
Io ho partecipato al laboratorio di base su TDD guidato da Alan Dean dove abbiamo svolto in pair programming un kata tratto dalla lista di eserci TDD per principianti: http://sites.google.com/site/tddproblems/

Il giudizio complessivo della giornata e’ veramente ottimo e mi ha permesso di conoscere molti appassionati programmatori inglesi allargando la mia rete di contatti professionali.