Remembering XP2007: Frictions/Creations

One of the most interesting moment at XP2007 was the workshop E held by two guys from France, Emmanuel and Bernard. Yes, the first thing worth to mention is the idea of Pair coaching, a belgian initiative that Yves Hanoulle hosts and manages, as Emmanuel told me.

The workshop was held as follows. Participants were divided in four groups (6 people each) and in two teams, Blue and Red. Each team has a group of Customers and a group of Developers. In the group of developers, there is a special person, called Observer, whose due is to track the evolution of the domain language among the Developer group. Developers were put in a different room from Customers (so, inside trading is possible, at last...).

The coach in the Developers' room gives the technology to the two teams -- see the photo to have a cue about it! -- while the coach in the Customers' room give the scenario to be modeled. Developers practice in the technology and Customers write mind maps and user stories about the domain to be modeled. End of the first pomodoro.

Before the second pomodoro, Customers can send an "email" (i.e. a paper sheet) to their Developers in order to explain the domain to be developed. The coach is the network pipe, they can't communicate otherwise with Developers. On the contrary, Developers should understand what to develop only through this very paper sheet. How difficult it was!

At the start of the third pomodoro, an email arrives from the Developers to the Customers in order to understand better what to do. Customers should finish their backlog (i.e.e give business proprities to stories) and can reply very quickly in a pomodoro, no more time. Now, coaches switches their rooms. In the fourth pomodoro a small retrospective is taken for Customers, while Developers should finish the first iteration having the user stories -- i.e. a workable implementation should be shown to Customers.

The following pomodoros are destinated to the working demo for each team and a general, final discussion among each team in order to have a better result for the second iteration -- better if taken with dialogue maps, guys, next time!

Final general retrospective all together: things that worked well, things that didn't worked well, mysterise (what didn't you understand) and new ideas to improve the workshop (meta-thinking).

This, more or less, is what I remember. I whould take it in the Varese XP-UG next year.

Thanks to Bernard and Emmanuel. Their company is named Octo Techology.