XTC 20100504 - Wolfpack Programming

"Wolfpack Programming" experiment hosted by Cincom Systems.

Where/When: 7pm, upstairs at the Butcher's Hook And Cleaver

We want to get started promptly at 7:00. So if you're able to come a bit earlier to eat, we'll be there from 6:00 on.

Bring: Yourself, your laptop, and an open mind.

Please take a moment to look over these documents in advance:

• The process for tonight (pdf)
• Background information on wolf behaviour (pdf)

Then please sign up below. It will make things easier if we have an accurate idea of numbers.

At Cincom recently, we have been discussing a concept that we are calling "Wolfpack Programming". The idea is to see how the social structure and hunting patterns of a wolf pack might be applied to facilitate a group of programmers working collaboratively in one environment--sort of an extreme version of pair programming.

So far, this is little more than a concept, but one we have been finding quite interesting. We want to run a bit of an experiment to explore the metaphor further and see whether it works at all in practice. We think it will be fun and, to thank you for participating, we will provide food and drinks for the evening.

We'll provide background information on the social and hunting patterns of wolf packs and a programming task to work on while assuming the various roles. We'll try this in Smalltalk but you don't need to know Smalltalk to join in: juvenile wolves have specific roles to play while they learn to hunt and we're curious to see if that works here as well. If you don't have a laptop, come along anyway; we'll pair people up or sort something out.

I'll be there

• Julian Fitzell
• Jason Ayers
• Christian Lalanne
• John Field
• Kev Dwyer
• Tim Mackinnon
• Mohinder Khosla (Just after 7.30 pm)
• Mike Storey
• Paul Dyson
• maquinas de coser
• Alan Griffiths (I doubt I'll there for a 7pm start. Definitely interested in drink and social if others are in same situation.)
• Put your name here if you're planning on coming along