Coding Dojo Applied

Coding Dojo Applied
Vladimir Tarasow

What is Coding Dojo?
A Coding Dojo is a meeting
where a bunch of coders get together
to work on a programming challenge.

It is a gathering
of programmers who come together
to have fun and learn while coding.

Formats of Coding Dojos
Formats:
● Randori
● Prepared Kata
● Working in Pairs
● Invent your own style!

Randori
In brief:
● The facilitator introduces the programming kata to solve.
● The facilitator invites a partner to join him at the keyboard. The
facilitator writes a first test, makes sure it runs red and invites
someone else from the group to take his place.
● Each pair works on the problem for 5-10 minutes, the facilitator
then makes sure that one person in the pair is switched out with
someone in the audience.
● After about 45-60 minutes of working on the problem, call a break
and review what’s happened.
● After the review, the group can work on another kata, try the
same problem again or use another exercise form.

Prepared Kata
In brief:
● The other name — Parisian
● Focuses on coding in front of others, most often something from
scratch, in a very short amount of time (1 to 1.5 hours).
● A presenter shows how to solve the challenge from scratch, using
TDD and BabySteps.
● While the presenter creates their code he is constantly speaking to
the audience letting them know exactly what they are doing and
why.
● Any member of the audience is allowed to interrupt the presenter
and ask them why they are coding in a certain pattern.

Working in Pairs
In brief:
● The group forms pairs of programmers.
● Pairs can choose their own programming language and
environment to craft a solution in.
● All the pairs work in the fashion the group has agreed to work for
30-60 minutes or more.
● After the coding session the pairs perform a short presentation on
their code base, showing the progress and design they have made.
● Re-mixing of pairs or of pair's members can be applied so every
person will work with other pair's code or programming language.

How to Cook Randori-style Dojo?

Roles
We suggest to use following roles:
● Pair
● Sensei
● Moderator

Pair
Pair of two working and talking at the PC in
order to complete the Kata.

Pair consists of a person who produces the
code — pilot, and a person who talks —
navigator.

Pair
Responsibilities:
● The pilot produces code.
● The navigator helps the pilot to understand what has been done
during previous iterations and what the pair should do now.
● The navigator tells what the pair should do now.

Sensei
A person who interferes and facilitates the
Kata by helping with advice when the pair is
stuck or arguing without any progress in code.
Must not speak in any other case.

Responsible to facilitate attendees to produce
code according to Working Agreements (WA)
and the goal of the Kata.

Sensei
Responsibilities:
● Introduces a programming language, framework or IDE before the
beginning.
● Introduces a Kata.
● Performs in the first iteration as a navigator.
● Working code by the end of the iteration.
● Some progress on fulfilling the Kata during the iteration.
● ‘Green’ tests by the end of the iteration, otherwise the next
iteration begins from making tests ‘green’.
● Tests are written during the iteration.
● Tests are good and don’t repeat the code itself just to pass.
● No long discussions without the code.

Moderator
Responsibilities:
● Helps attendees to form Working Agreements.
● Facilitates attendees to obey the principles.
● Controls the time-boxing.
● Can make a break in case he or she observes some kind of
misunderstanding or discomfort and ask questions in order to find
out and remove any impediments.
● Conducts the retrospective.

Principles
Let's talk about the following things:
● Working on Kata
● Timeboxing
● Switching
● Respect

The Main Rule
At the Dojo
one can't discuss a form without code,
and one can't show code without tests.

Working on Kata
At the Dojo one can't discuss a form without
code, and one can't show code without tests.

So the person which is not on the stage can
give an idea, but can not fall into discussion
with the pair.

If he or she wants to implement the idea
mentioned, he or she can enter the pair at the
next iteration.

Timeboxing
Pair works during a fixed period of time.

It can be any period of time which attendees
have agreed to use. It can vary between 5 and
15 minutes.

The 10 min period seems to be optimal,
because it’s enough time to briefly discuss
the algorithm and to implement it.

Switching
The person who enters into the coding
timebox begins to act as a pilot.

The person who was the pilot during the
previous iteration switches his position to the
navigator, the one who talks.

The first iteration begins with the Sensei in
the position of the navigator.

Switching
The switching may be ordered so each of the
attendees will participate, or the ordered
switching can be interrupted if an attendee
wants to implement his or her idea right now.

The switching principle should be defined
within the Dojo’s Working Agreements.

Respect
Attendees of the Coding Dojo respect each
other and their willingness to learn so that:
● Ring tones of mobile phones are off; a person can answer a call,
but he or she must leave the room to answer it.
● Only the pair at the PC can talk loud.
● All discussions away from the PC must be made in the way not to
spoil the pair’s deep diving into the Kata.
● Sensei can interfere and talk loud by his/her own decision.

Respect
Attendees of the Coding Dojo respect each
other and their willingness to learn so that:
● If a person wants to ask or suggest something to the pair, he or
she should raise the hand and wait for the moderator to allow him
or her to talk.
● Only one person from the observers can talk at a time.
● It’s the pair who must decide how to proceed after receiving an
advise or hint from an observer.

Prerequisites
In order to succeed you should think about:
● Hardware
● Software
● Kata
● Working agreements
● Snacks and drinks

Hardware
Minimum setup:
● PC where the Kata should be solved.
● Big screen and the projector to show the same picture that is on
the PC screen.
● Whiteboard or flip chart to pinpoint the Kata rules and working
agreements attendees agreed to obey.

Hardware
Recommended setup:
● PC where the Kata should be solved.
● 104-key keyboard so the pilot will not be distracted from coding
with unfamiliar keyboard.
● Big external monitor for the PC.
● Big screen and the projector to show the same picture that is on
the PC screen.
● Whiteboard or flip chart to pinpoint the Kata rules and working
agreements attendees agreed to obey.
● Whiteboard or flip chart for the working pair to share their
thoughts.

Additionally it’ll be great to have a Wi-Fi network and enough seats and
power outlets available for all attendees.

Software
Introduction into the tools that will be used
should be made beforehand, so that any
attendee has a sufficient amount of
knowledge to participate in the Dojo:
● Programming language — links to the language reference printed
or opened in the browser on PC.
● Framework — links to the framework reference printed or opened
in the browser on PC.
● IDE — printed version of most used keyboard shortcuts to make
the work comfortable.

Kata
The task that should be solved during the
Coding Dojo.

Must be prepared beforehand, but presented
by the Sensei just before the beginning of the
Dojo, but not earlier.

Working agreements
Before the start the attendees with the help
of moderator have to decide what set of rules
to obey during the Coding Dojo.

Working agreements
Example:
● Length of the timebox.
● Application of unit tests.
● Application of test-first approach.
● Switching: by person’s will or by some order.
● Sensei can change the Kata during the Dojo by adding additional
tasks to complete, or he can not change the Kata.
● Sensei can ask the pair to leave the PC before the time ends, or
he can't.
● …

Snacks and drinks
Attendees are responsible to bring and share
some food and drinks.

Tips & Tricks
Use them as you like:
● Time-box can be visualized by a hourglass.
● The moderator can allow a person to talk by using ‘The Magic
Wand’. A fairy wand suits well.
● When smelly code is detected the Sensei can wear a gas mask or
signal the working pair about this fact in other way.
● You can use any kind of the task as a Kata. For example, an open
issue/bug from an OSS project can be used as a Kata. However,
using the classic Katas considered to be better to the audience
unfamiliar with the Coding Dojo.

Tips & Tricks
Use them as you like:
● In order to return to the code previously deleted or changed by
the other pair faster, the well-known version control system like
Subversion or Git can be used.
● Each iteration should be committed into some VCS so the flow of
fulfilling the Kata can be tracked and analyzed in the past.
● The code can be commented or a file with thoughts to be
developed next can be used (ReadMe Driven Development) in
order to share thoughts of the current pair to the next one.

Further Reading
● Coding Dojo
● Code Kata by Dave Thomas
● The Coding Dojo by Joe Wright
● How to start a Coding Dojo by Johannes Brodwall
● Real time coding competition with Extreme Startup by
Johannes Brodwall
● Cyber-Dojo by Jon Jagger
● We Need Realistic Coding Dojos by Zsolt Fabók

Credits
Clipart for illustrations is taken from openclipart.org

Contacts
Vladimir Tarasow
About: http://about.me/netrat
E-mail: netrat@netrat.eu

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.

Coding Dojo Applied

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