OT Session Xbots

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WG4

OT2004 Session
Xbots

Learn Extreme Programming disciplines while battling for robot supremacy!

Sunday 28 March, 13:00

workshop - 330 minutes

Duncan Pierce

Session results
When available, can be found at XbotsSessionResults??

Abstract
The Xbots workshop (often called the Robocode workshop) comes to OT. The workshop simulates a development project happening under pressure from the business.
Bring a laptop if you have one and join a team of 4 to program the ultimate virtual robot. Every 30 minutes your robot will face the other teams' robots in a battle for survival. Points are allocated for such things as survival time and destroying other robots.
Time is real in the game, and game points are a thinly-disguised analogy for business value. To win, you need to achieve greater simplicity and discipline than the other teams. XP can help you do this. Periodically we'll stop the session to take a break, show you how to apply a new technique to your development process and help your team implement it. How you apply that knowledge is up to you.
We'll try to allocate teams at the start of the session based on experience of XP and Eclipse, but don't worry - you'll get introductions to the tools, the game and the techniques you can use. Help will be on hand throughout the session to answer questions and offer guidance.
At the end of the session we'll find out from the winners how they did it, and hear from each team the lessons learned.
Don't forget to bring a laptop if you can! Please send an email to xbots@ot2004.org to let me know if you're coming and whether you can bring a laptop or not.

Audience
Experience of Java is useful. Experience of Robocode is not really necessary. Experience of Eclipse is somewhat helpful, though we will be demonstrating the major features you'll need.

Benefits

Experience the forces that guide a team towards agile development practices.
Learn to apply several XP practices in a fairly realistic environment.
Develop the discipline of applying those practices under pressure.
Understand for yourself the importance of gaining early value from a project.

Materials
The game itself! A few slides, and build up some flipchart diagrams covering the important points.
Attendees need to bring a laptop (if possible) which can be connected to an Ethernet or wireless network, and which has Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) and Robocode (http://robocode.alphaworks.ibm.com/) preinstalled.
I'll be coordinating laptop and hardware availability: you can email me at xbots@ot2004.org.

Duncan Pierce Amarinda	Duncan Pierce has been helping companies including Egg and British Telecom improve their software development since 2001. He specializes in process effectiveness coaching for Agile development and management teams. Duncan regularly speaks at conferences in the UK, Europe and the US and was a founder of the XPDay conferences. He is a long-standing member of London's Extreme Tuesday Club (XTC), a founding member of the Highgate Guild (http://highgateguild.com/) and director of the Agile Alliance's Agile Narratives programme (http://agilenarratives.org/). He has worked in the retail, internet and investment banking, logistics, insurance, biotech, consumer electronics, industrial R&D, local government, wired and mobile telecomms sectors. Until 2001 he was a Senior Developer at Connextra Ltd, one of the pioneers of the XP process in Europe. Duncan holds a B.Sc. Computer Science from Southampton University, an M.Sc. Computation from University of Oxford and Ph.D. in Foundations of Software Reuse from Staffordshire University, all in the UK. He can be reached at duncan.pierce@amarinda.com. His homepage is at http://duncanpierce.org/

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WG4		OT2004 Session Xbots
		Learn Extreme Programming disciplines while battling for robot supremacy! Sunday 28 March, 13:00
		workshop - 330 minutes
		Duncan Pierce

Session results	When available, can be found at XbotsSessionResults??
Abstract	The Xbots workshop (often called the Robocode workshop) comes to OT. The workshop simulates a development project happening under pressure from the business. Bring a laptop if you have one and join a team of 4 to program the ultimate virtual robot. Every 30 minutes your robot will face the other teams' robots in a battle for survival. Points are allocated for such things as survival time and destroying other robots. Time is real in the game, and game points are a thinly-disguised analogy for business value. To win, you need to achieve greater simplicity and discipline than the other teams. XP can help you do this. Periodically we'll stop the session to take a break, show you how to apply a new technique to your development process and help your team implement it. How you apply that knowledge is up to you. We'll try to allocate teams at the start of the session based on experience of XP and Eclipse, but don't worry - you'll get introductions to the tools, the game and the techniques you can use. Help will be on hand throughout the session to answer questions and offer guidance. At the end of the session we'll find out from the winners how they did it, and hear from each team the lessons learned. Don't forget to bring a laptop if you can! Please send an email to xbots@ot2004.org to let me know if you're coming and whether you can bring a laptop or not.
Audience	Experience of Java is useful. Experience of Robocode is not really necessary. Experience of Eclipse is somewhat helpful, though we will be demonstrating the major features you'll need.
Benefits	Experience the forces that guide a team towards agile development practices. Learn to apply several XP practices in a fairly realistic environment. Develop the discipline of applying those practices under pressure. Understand for yourself the importance of gaining early value from a project.
Materials	The game itself! A few slides, and build up some flipchart diagrams covering the important points. Attendees need to bring a laptop (if possible) which can be connected to an Ethernet or wireless network, and which has Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) and Robocode (http://robocode.alphaworks.ibm.com/) preinstalled. I'll be coordinating laptop and hardware availability: you can email me at xbots@ot2004.org.