Since Dan Wiebe already did a great job of summarizing today's "Coding in the Clink - III" CodeRetreat at Marion Correctional Institute (MCI), he suggested I blog specifically about the two sessions I participated in.
I paired with Wes in the first cycle. He has programming experience "on the outside". Not only was he disappointed that we had to use Eclipse instead of IntelliJ, he was further disheartened that we had to work on a generic workstation that didn't have his Eclipse template(s) on it. But he got over all that quickly and we had a blast (and got some work done). Wes and I were yukking it up so much that another insider asked us to keep it down. (Wes is known in the group for his loud enjoyment.) Wes did most of the driving. I mainly suggested ways for the tests to drive the code and offered ways to break his ideas into smaller TDD steps . Wes was great about this. He feigned frustration at my suggestions while making it clear that he appreciated me keeping him "honest". It seemed to help him take a break from the all-too-common block of "I've already got it designed in my head, how do I write it with tests first?" I did occasionally contribute to our design, mainly by suggesting tests that I thought would cause interesting problems. One suggestion I made seemed to lead us down a rabbit hole, but Wes and I made the best of it by turning it into real refactoring practice (when our tests were green).
After our first session, the inside guys and we outsiders pulled our chairs into a rough circle and discussed the morning. The insiders really seemed to appreciate the learning that happens in both directions, even in pairs that have significant skill differences. One said he liked being a triple because he had the resources and perspectives of two other programmers instead of just one.
A quick anecdote about lunch: we were served "brunch" food (eggs, sausage, English muffin...) and a couple of the insiders made a point to say that we shouldn't think they eat like this all the time, that this is a nicer meal than they usually have. And overhearing them, a nearby corrections officer ("CO", never "guard") answered something like: "Don't listen to them, this is no better than what they always eat". I'm not sure what was behind this exchange. It was the only thing I heard the whole day that could even remotely be taken as playing for sympathy. Otherwise conversation was just about like what goes on at CodeRetreats on the outside: insiders asked us about what other languages we've used, they told us about their past computer experience, and two told me at lunch about a job they both worked on with a private company in Arizona from inside MCI. (I tip my hat to those guys - telephone was the only way they were allowed to communicate with their civilian colleagues, and one of the colleagues didn't initially want to work with men in prison.)
During the second (and last) cycle of the day, I was in a triple with Larry and Dave (I think). Dave was much more comfortable than Larry, and seemed to have more experience. This cycle, I was especially aware of being a coach, maybe because Larry wasn't as quick to see where Dave was going and was less assertive with his ideas than Dave was. I found myself pulled in two directions - on the one hand, I was drawing Larry out by asking him to suggest tests or suggesting that he implement code to make Dave's new test pass. On the other hand, I wanted to encourage Dave's enthusiasm and ideas. The conclusion I drew from this cycle is that I think inexperienced developers probably shouldn't be in triples unless they are very outgoing and ready to take risks. If I'm coaching someone who is shy or inexperienced or both, I'd like to be able to give them my full attention as a paring partner.
It seemed like everyone, insiders and outsiders, had a great experience. More than one insider spoke of what he learned. We worked about 9:30 to 3, so if you figure we had 30 minutes for lunch, we only had about 5 hours. Most people seemed to think that this was too short a day. Apparently, they usually have until 4:00 but were cut short today because of scheduling of other outside programs.
Many thanks to Dan, Jo Dee (Dan's "prison boss"), the COs that accommodated us, the insiders and the other six volunteers. I'd very much like to do this again.
