Want a free seat for my TDD class in march? Propose a challenge.

In a few weeks I will be giving a full two day TDD class in .NET, in London, at the SkillsMatter facilities.

To celebrate the first course ever that I am doing “alone” (without any host organizing things for me), I’m giving away one free seat for the full two days (it does not include flight or hotel costs).

But who to select? Ah. a challenge is in order!

Propose a challenge that I’ll ask people to do – anything that people could share online relating to unit testing in some way.

some things I’m considering (but happy to hear better ideas) :

• Tell your worst war stories relating to unit testing\TDD
• Make a short video about unit testing\tdd
• write the best sob story on why you deserve it
• bribes
• selling the ticket on ebay
• naked pict…. never mind.

any idea is welcome. as you can see, I’m struggling.

I will declare this challenge within 3 days.

Comments

[Phillip]

I was going to propose an idea but Fights/Hotels not included with the ticket :)

[Tim Barber]

Hi Rob,

A lot of developers like to show off their skill, so how about a competition?

If you name a TDD kata exercise for people to complete, they can record their attempts and post them to be voted on. With the kudos going to the winner (or a cop of your book etc).

I've seen some casts of your string calculator kata, so something similar would be the idea.

Tim Barber

[Raph]

I always thought it would be fun (and a great exercise) to try to write really bad tests - e.g. do a kata and try to solve it the worst possible way.

[Nieve]

I was thinking of suggesting a challenge where devs would write the same test in different languages and then try to provide some insight on the differences that the tests show.
But then I thought a better challenge would be, this being a TDD course and all, asking people to provide all their best arguments against TDD, their discontent and problems they'd like to resolve. This could be provide you with some new good ideas...

[KevDog]

I would ask people to post the code they most regret writing and know they could have done better if they used TDD.

Using this approach rewards people with the self-awareness to recognize their mistakes combined with the willingness to make it better.

[Raza]

Well I will say that the opportunity should go to a newbie at TDD specially who may be cannot afford to attend the course on his/her own. Its a good opprotunity to train someone new to TDD to put him/her on a firm TDD track. Its a good idea to ask people why they think they should get the chance and what motivated them to apply for this.