ABAP Code Retreat in Weinheim
From time to time it is important to get out of our comfort zone to achieve better results.
Such possibility was given to interested ABAP developers on our last ABAP Code Retreat in Weinheim.
Damir Majer was our trainer this time and he had a lot of challenges prepared for us.
The business case was to develop a tic tac toe game in ABAP.
The requirement was to use ADT, TDD and pair programming to achieve the goal.
Each team had a time slot for developing and need to switch the active developer after a set time.
After each new pair-programming round you had to delete all your beautiful created code. It’s like the worst feeling on earth, but its was obligatory. So teams are starting each time from scratch.
They are several possibilities to learn something on this community event.
For example why is pair programming a very power full way of creating better software and how, using TDD, to create a safety net for further developments or even how NOT to use a mouse for developing and learn the shortcuts of your IDE 🙂
I can encourage every ABAP developer to take the possibility and attend to an ABAP CodeRetreat next time.
This time the event was hosted by objective partner AG in Weinheim/Germany.
See you next time in Weinheim
This could be very interesting, but what about the real case? I mean, when you're in a company working for a customer that doesn't need fancy work but he wants only now and cheap? Do you think that we'll be able to let the customer understand the importance of a job well done? Probably he will rejects everything that means costs and let me say that all those guys in the picture are working hard to learn new technology and this can't be payed with a hand on the shoulder 🙂
The sand castle is beautiful unitl the water divour it !
Hi Roberto,
at first, ABAP CodeRetreat is fun and an event for personal improvement.
There are and always will be differences in skillset of (ABAP) Developers.
There will always be lazy developers, but, from my point of view, that ones wont compete long as times in the ABAP world are changing.
On the other side, customers who want their solutions be developed "only now and cheap" wont compete in the future with their competitors.
Such solutions wont be used long by end users as they will mostly have lot of bugs and/or will be replaced by other solution because they are not maintainable.
"Do you think that we’ll be able to let the customer understand the importance of a job well done?" Well, as professional IT consultants, we must try it each time. That belongs to our job.
NO doubt about "we must try it each time". But I'm pretty sure that big companies won't let the professional IT consultants sell their solution with the "competition" motivation. As far as I know those companies put their target on the MBO for internal managers and that means only one thing for professional IT consultants : sell at the lowest price a competitive solution that required a lot of effort. This is against the market rules. There's no an honest equation between work's cost and added value.
That's why , in my opinion, we'll not be able to let the customer understand the importance of a job well done. Probably with a company in a place where there's not a capitalist concept. Concepts like ROE, ROI , etc, are old fashion way . If you need "My Product", I can tell you whatever I want and I can make the price I want as far as I make international monopolistic agreements with competitors, thanks to the same instrument that today make us more efficient and productive and with much more knowledge : Internet.
Anyway is a good effort to let the young people confident about the future and to let the economy goes around 🙂
Hi Roberto,
I think this is not a thing you need to sell, it is just part of how you work.
I switched to TDD as my main style 2 years ago. It payed off after about 6 months. My style & design are much cleaner, I am way faster in delivering working code than I previously was. My tempo is also more consistent.
As soon as the timeframe exceeds 3-4 days I will always be faster with TDD. The more time passes, the worst the others get.
The job is done when the code passed all tests and is running on the production system, not when my code compiles.
I refuse to let my client bargain with me about Professional Standards.
The sad thing is, that some day some poor guy (who needs the money) will do some stupid shit (ignoring quality in order to get that stupid contract) and his garbage software will kill people or cause major financial damage (in a public fashion). Then our industry will have to answer a lot of very uncomfortable questions about standards and ethics. Politicians will feel obligated to regulate our industry - oh the masterpieces that will arise from that...
I agree with uncle Bob, we have to enforce some quality standards upon ourselves. My opinion is that TDD is a beneficial development method which should be part of those quality standards and that a lack of discipline can not be an excuse not to improve (Because nobody will give a damn, when something finally does happen).
I'm agree with you Dmitrii almost on all. We can talk about quality and enhancement with people that is open- minded , but not with people that think "whatever I do, better or worst, my income doesn't change". And that's is the question. At the time we're writing there's no chance that we can obtain freedom from our income, from commodity fetishism and from social division. We can talk about technology because we're in SAP SDN Forum but we can't forget that we work for money and we learn for money because we're in a society that pretends money.
So why we should be faster if the market is already full? I think they're mocking us . When I say "They" I mean who's up on you on the pyramid.
Nobody cares about lack of discipline and standards. What they want is their income at the end of the year. If something goes wrong? It's up to low level people to repair, especially newbies and other stuff like fresh guys to put under pressure. That's the way.
Out You, Inside another one.
Are you fast? Wonderful, well... solve me the problem or get out. That's the way of thinking. I'm agree with you that they will pay this attitude.
Is it possible to download the resulting tic-tac-toe ABAP program from your session?
Hi Tobias,
unfortunately not.
The ABAP CodeRetreat is not about finishing implementation of a given business case.
Its more about retry doing it and see how you get better and better using ADT, TDD, and pair programming.