XPMan Thurs Feb 9th – Design Patterns
February’s (normal) XPManchester is hosted by John Penney and is about Design Patterns. His abstract for the session follows…
Design Patterns are really useful. Even when we’re not using them to design new systems, we’re using them to describe existing systems: if you’ve ever scoffed at a Singleton or asked a Factory to fabricate an object then you’ve used elements of the pattern language that the Gang of Four compiled nearly 20 years ago. I think it would help us all to become more proficient at this pattern language. Maybe we will be able to communicate our design intents more deeply. That’s the goal of this session, and I hope to achieve it by playing some games:http://industriallogic.com/games/dppc.html.
Some background knowledge of design patterns would be useful, but is by no means essential. You don’t need a laptop, but if you can get your hands on one of the Design Patterns books, then please bring it along, it might be useful for reference.
And if you’re still wavering, then be aware: there will be chocolate.
See you there!
XPManchester 12th January – Refactoring with James McDonald.
@Jimmbob will be kicking off the first session of the new year with a session on refactoring.
During the session, Jim will work through an example application filled with examples of bad coding you’ll find in the wild. He’ll refactor step by step, and then it will be your turn to have a go, so remember laptops!
We’re at Madlab from 6:30pm, see you then.
XPMan XL3 – February 4th 2012
Happy new year folks.
In 2011 we held 3 full day events, a code retreat on #GDCR11 and two XPMan XL events – which worked a bit like a mini code retreat but with different activities in the afternoon. Each event received great feedback and we’re aiming for better this year.
What
Like every event, we’ll be practising various XP/agile practices. A key principle we’ll be focusing on this event is ‘release early, release often’. There will be a couple of exercises to help practise in the morning, then we will put things to the test with a larger group coding challenge.
Where, When
Saturday 4th Februray 2012, Starting at 9am at Madlab in the Northern Quarter. (36-40 Edge Street M4 1HN, opposite Common)
Tickets
If you’re coming, please grab a free ticket from our eventbrite page.
Sponsors
The day is being part sponsored by the MoneyPlusGroup, who are looking for .NET developers in the Altrincham area.
Extra sponsors to cover donations to Madlab, who make community events such as this possible, would be most welcome. If you can help, please get in touch with me, markkirschstein {{at}} gmail {{dot}} com.
XPManchester – 8th Dec 2011. The System Metaphor
December’s XPMan is being run by @johnnonolan, he’ll be discussing the system metaphor. John’s intro below…
Rainbows, Unicorns, a decent Coldplay record, are all examples of mythical beasts. Extreme Programming has its own, The System Metaphor.
Perhaps XP’s forgotten practice, it certainly doesn’t have the reputation that others do.
In this session we will be tracking down the beast and observing its charateristics. We investigating if it is still relevent in today’s world or just doomed to become extinct.
We are NOT at Madlab this month, we will be at LateRooms office’s in Manchester, which is right by Victoria Station.
Try to get to the office by 6:30 for a 7pm start.
If anyone gets lost on their way you can tweet me @markkirschstein, or call on 07743 936 018
Global Day of Coderetreat
In case you hadn’t noticed, XP-Manchester is running a Coderetreat as part of the Global Day of Coderetreat on December 3rd 2011.
You can find out everything you need to know by visiting our page on Eventbrite, where you can find FAQs, links to further information, and the all-important sign-me-up button. Oh, and it’s FREE to attend.
Places are limited, and tickets are going fast now, so make sure you book your place soon!
XPManchester – Thu 10 Nov 2011 – Order Jobs Kata
For November’s XPManchester, @martinrue will be guiding us through his Ordered Jobs Kata.
This is a practical session, so please remember to bring a laptop setup for development to pair on. As always, we’re language agnostic.
We’ll be meeting in Madlab from 6:30, and as usual, a group of us will be at Common Bar (across the road from Madlab) beforehand.
See you there.
XPManchester 13th October 2011: TDD – No Code Required!
This month’s XPManchester is brought to you by @kipper_t. He will be presenting a session getting to the very basic principles of Test Driven Development. This will involve practical exercises, but no code required. Kevin’s synopsis below:
See you at 6:30pm at Madlab
In the nature of taking things to the extreme, this is a bare bones look at the workings of TDD. Removing the code can provide an in depth look into the capabilities of TDDwithout distractions of setting up the environment. In order to remove the code some knowledge of Activity/Flow diagrams is required (We can have a quick recap right at the start). We will focus on the 5 core steps as adapted from Kent Becks book, Test Driven Development: by example, and work through a simple Kata.
The purpose of the session is not to result in something which can be purely represented within code, although that may be a symptom. The purpose is to examine the challenge of choosing the first test and how to evolve a problem and achieve emergent solution in an efficient and logical manner.
All required materials (pen and paper) will be provided in the form of ball point pens and a chunk of paper with suitable recycling provided afterwards.
The structure of the session will be as follows:
Brief introduction
Recap of Activity diagrams
Overview of the 5 steps to be followed
Short pre-worked examples
A series of Pair Programmed sessions to develop and redevelop a kata(TBC)
A retrospect to determine how the sessions went and the effectiveness of removing the code aspect
XPMan IRC channel
@martinrue suggested we start up an IRC channel the other day, for XP related discussions that don’t really fit the mailing list.
Come join us.
#xpman on irc.freenode.net
8th September – Kanban Discussion
During the last couple of months there have been quite a few events around Manchester discussing Kanban. This month at XP Manchester we hope to have a discussion on Kanban and try to share the insights people have gained from attending these events.
The discussion will be facilitated by David Toon.
For anyone who’s been to any of the Kanban events, please come with thoughts on what was said or what you’ve learned. Anyone who didn’t go to any of the events, will hopefully get a decent recap on what happened!
Hope to see you there!
Jim.
Code Dojo – 11th August 2011
Hi all,
Apologies for the late notice (again) – was struggling to find something for this month.
Andy Grant will be facilitating a code dojo this time around, so bring your laptops set up for some TDD / BDD / XDD. 
The event will be at MabLab as usual.
Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Jim.
