Make sure participants know they shouldn’t try to finish the problem and why that is important
Let participants know that at the end of the session you will ask everyone to delete their code and stand up. This allows them to experiment and practice in a way they can’t at work.
The first session should be very simple. This is an opportunity for people to make sure they have their environments setup for TDD.
Allow pairs to get a feel for the problem domain. Not everyone has seen Conway’s Game of Life before, so this session will allow them to wrap their head around the task. After the first session, it can sometimes be useful to discuss the idea of deleting the code. Some people might have a bit of resistance to the idea. Gently explain that those are the rules.
People exchange their insights and try to get to know each other a bit:
Session 3 - Programming Language Constraints
Explain to teams that the last session they can choose and go with any self-imposed limits. Below are some constraints that can be introduced, chosen based on the experience of the individual pairs.
The Closing Circle
Prior to the closing circle, tell them the following three questions and then give them a break to think about these three questions.
Then in the closing circle ask each participant to answer each of the questions:
If the group is large, you might not want to ask/answer all three questions to keep it short.
Yes, because the learning goal we’re focusing on isn’t the program itself. Throughout the workshop, we focus on the habits of how we build the code. Game Of Life is just challenging enough to make it a worthwhile exercise, but also unambiguous enough so the usual misunderstandings between requirement and implementation don’t inhibit learning.