35: Four sessions instead of six and making the event more fun

In this episode Dagmar Labes is sharing some of her facilitation secrets:

• When to reduce to four sessions instead of standard six?
• How to make the event more motivating and more fun for participants?

Download the MP3 (11 minutes - 8 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you Dagmar.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

34: Skills needed for facilitation and alternatives to Game of Life

In this episode:

• Which skills does a facilitator need?
• Alternative code katas to the Game of Life?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 13 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Mentioned in this episode:

• JS CodeRetreat: facilitator's skills
• Mars Rover Kata
• Kata Theater

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

33: How to help others and mixing in Open Space

This is the second part of my chat with Amélie Cornélis about:

• As an attendee, how can I help others and myself to learn?
• How about combining Coderetreat with the Open Space format?

Download the MP3 (10 minutes - 8 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Amélie, thank you for another discussion. You can reach Amélie at her Twitter @AmelieCornelis.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Open Space

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

32: First time facilitation and helping participants

In this episode I will answer five quick questions:

• What kind of people will be at the Coderetreat?
• How to prepare for first time facilitation?
• How much should we help people during the session?
• How to deal with a pair of juniors who do not get anywhere?
• What's more important, participants changing partners or freedom?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 14 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

31: Helping attendees into the day and then winding down and reflect

In this episode I am discussing with Amélie Cornélis about:

• How to help attendees get into the day - at the beginning of the event?
• How to help attendees wind down and reflect?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 7 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Amélie, thank you for the discussion. You can chat with Amélie at @AmelieCornelis.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

30: Facilitation, typical constraints and advertising

The 30th episode with the following questions:

• During the day itself what kind of facilitation do you do?
• Which constraints to use on a typical Coderetreat?
• How to advertise your Coderetreat?

Download the MP3 (11 minutes - 16 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

29: Setup and facilitation of a remote MobRetreat

This is the second episode with Harald Reingruber about Mob Programming:

• What is your setup for remote mob- or ensemble programming?
• How to facilitate several remote mobs at once?
• Are you changing people from the mobs during the MobRetreat?

Download the MP3 (10 minutes - 7 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Harald is available at his Twitter for further discussion. Thank you Harald.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Cloud Desktop Setup Instructions, see similar approaches by Clare Macrae, Jay Bazuzi and Llewellyn Falco.
• Remote Access Tools: AnyDesk or TeamViewer. VNC is too slow.
• Mob-Programming on Open Source Software Meetup, Vienna

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

28: How to keep schedule, including junior facilitators and TDD

In this episode I will answer the following questions:

• A Coderetreat is very busy. How do you keep the schedule?
• How to include a supporting or junior facilitator, e.g. from the hosting company?
• What is Test Driven Development? (Not really answering that ;-)

Download the MP3 (8 minutes - 12 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Kent Beck's book "Test-Driven Development: By Example"
• Emily Bache "TDD is a Superior Way of Working"
• Dave Farley "Test Driven Development"
• Jason Gorman "Test-Driven Development (TDD) in Java"
• Jason Gorman "7 Myths About Test-Driven Development Debunked"

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

27: What is a MobRetreat

Happy new year! In this episode Harald Reingruber explains the new format of MobRetreat:

• What is a MobRetreat?
• What is the difference to a regular Coderetreat?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 7 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you Harald. You can reach Harald at his Twitter for further discussion.

Mentioned in this episode:

• MobRetreat home (Check out the MobRetreat presentation on the Resources page.)
• Mob-Programming on Open Source Software Meetup, Vienna

Note: New RSS Feed! If you subscribed to this podcast before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to the new feed https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw.)

26: Coderetreat with progressive sessions without deleting the code

In this episode I am describing an experimental Coderetreat format I used in one of my last retreats. The goal was to have progressive sessions without deleting the code, a bit like product development. I am talking about:

• Options to work on progressive sessions during the day in general.
• Validation of the Coderetreat principles for the taken option.
• Actual kata used and its requirement changes.
• Sessions run during the day and what to focus on as facilitator.
• Conclusion including feedback from participants.

Download the MP3 (12 minutes - 18 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Lean Poker or Extreme Startup
• The Bowling Game Kata
• The OCP kata

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

25: Top 3 most important facts about Coderetreat facilitation

This episode marks one year of the Coderetreat Facilitation podcast. To celebrate the anniversary - and to prepare for the upcoming GDCR20 I will recap my top 3 most important facts about Coderetreat facilitation:

• What is the Coding Dojo Mindset? (from episode 10)
• What is your primary job as facilitator? (from episode 13)
• Focus on pairing (from episode 15)
• What is the best way to facilitate? (from episode 5)
• Why are there four questions when I said "top 3"? ;-)

Download the MP3 (13 minutes - 19 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you all for staying with me for the last year.

(Music from Party horn by audiosmedia, Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

24: Teaching elements in a Coderetreat, learning goals and how to adapt to the group

This is the second episode with Technical Agile Coach Emily Bache on how to take the Coderetreat to the next level:

• Which teaching elements could we add to a Coderetreat?
• What about learning goals?
• How to adapt the (learning) material to the group?

Download the MP3 (11 minutes - 8 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you Emily for sharing your knowledge about teaching. You can reach Emily on her Twitter for further discussion.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ensemble/Mob Programming
• Bloom's Taxonomy

New RSS Feed: If you subscribed to this podcast before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to the new feed https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

23: All first time participants, facilitators knowing Game of Life and supporting the global event

In this episode I am answering Lars' questions:

• Any problems when all participants are first-time Coderetreat participants?
• Any problems when all participants have never heard of the Game of Life?
• Is it required to solve the Game of Life before facilitating a Coderetreat?
• During (pre Covid) Global Day of Coderetreat, which activities support the global event?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 13 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Christian Hujer's Game of Life sample solution
• Game of Life, Apache Ant
• Game of Life, 1 line APL
• Game of Life, short functional solution in Clojure
• Game of Life, 256 bytes Commodore Assembly
• Game of Life, TSQL
• Game of Life, XSLT
• Join the Software Crafters Slack Team (Channel #coderetreat)

New RSS Feed: If you subscribed to this podcast before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to the new feed https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

22: The Coding Dojo, using Coding Dojo exercises and are constraints overrated

In this episode I talking with Technical Agile Coach Emily Bache about her Coding Dojo Handbook and bits of the Coding Dojo can we use in a Coderetreat:

• What is a Coding Dojo?
• What is Emily's Handbook about?
• How can we use smaller exercises in a Coderetreat?
• Are constraints overrated?

Download the MP3 (10 minutes - 7 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you Emily for sharing your knowledge about Coding Dojos. You can reach Emily on her Twitter for further discussion.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Coding Dojo Handbook by Emily Bache

New RSS Feed: If you subscribed to this podcast before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to the new feed https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

21: Participants not getting TDD, increase participation in inhouse Coderetreats and questions in session retro

This episode was inspired by SoCraTes Day Switzerland:

• What if participants don't "get" TDD?
• How to increase participation in inhouse Coderetreats?
• What questions do you ask in the session retro?

Download the MP3 (9 minutes - 13 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

New RSS Feed: If you subscribed to this podcast before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to the new feed https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

New RSS Feed

TL;DR: Feed URL has changed - you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again to this podcast: https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

When I started this podcast last year, I wanted to get it done quickly. I did not think much about Podcast hosting services. I decided to use Google Blogger (again), mainly because I was familiar with it. The Google FeedBurner service worked well to convert the Blogger feed into a podcast one. I was able to subscribe to the feed using my podcast catcher on Android. All was well.

Then people kept asking me if I could put the podcast on iTunes, e.g. Steve Korzinetzki asked Peter, is there a chance to find your podcast on iTunes Podcasts in the near future? :) I considered it a sign of success of the show and had a look. That was five months ago. I faced some technical difficulties and was not sure I could make my feed Apple compliant. FeedBurner allowed only limited customisation. In the end I had to roll my own RSS. While I had not wanted to do that in the beginning, I accepted the need after half a year of podcasting. Further there was no time pressure as the podcast was already life. By creating my own feed, I was able to add extra meta data, e.g. derive the episode number from the file name of the audio file. Win.

So if you subscribed to the podcast here on my website before August 27th 2020, you need to unsubscribe and subscribe again for the new feed URL to be used. The new feed is https://www.code-cop.org/podcast/rss_feed.php.

Thank you all for encouraging me to do this. Now you can find the podcast listed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, too.

As always, if you have any questions regarding your Coderetreat, Coding Dojo or hands-on workshop, please send me an email or leave a comment. I will answer the question in one of the next episodes.

20: Dealing with distractions and support of coding setup

In this episode I talk with my co-facilitator Oliver Spann about:

• How to deal with distractions and negative surprises?
• How to support people with their coding setup?

Download the MP3 (8 minutes - 10 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Thank you Oliver for sharing your knowledge. Read more from Oliver at his blog.

Coding setup mentioned in this episode:

• kata-bootstraps
• Cyber Dojo

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

19: Saturday, communication up front and splitting the group between facilitators

In this episode you learn about:

• Is Saturday required for a Coderetreat?
• Should we communicate about learning before the event so we get the "right" people in?
• How to split the group between facilitators?

Download the MP3 (8 minutes - 11 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)

18: Corey Haines' Cleveland Coderetreat Introduction Part 2

In this episode Corey Haines will introduce you to

• Coderetreat Day Structure.
• Using different programming languages.
• Conway's Game of Life.

Download the MP3 (10 minutes - 13 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

Check out the full video here:

Material in this episode and related episodes:

• Corey Haines' Cleveland Code Retreat Introduction from Corey Haines on Vimeo
• Episode 16: Part 1
• Episode 05: Coderetreat Day Structure
• Episode 01: Learning a new language
• Episode 02: Explain the Game of Life
• Conway's Game of Life

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw.)

17: Preserving energy as facilitator and activities to help switch pairs

In this episode I talk about:

• Preserving my energy as facilitator.
• Activities to help switch pairs.

Download the MP3 (8 minutes - 12 Mb) or subscribe to the Feed.

(Music from Synth Loop 1 by allpurposedw and Gong 001 by tec_studio.)