Artists, musicians and athletes train every day. Software developers, however, rarely train: Everyday life is characterized by deadlines and it's usually all about the perfect result.
A code retreat is a chance to train again.
A code retreat is an intensive, hands-on event day that focuses on the fundamentals of software development and design, without the pressure to "get things done".
We start with a simple programming task. Then we work with different partners, discuss and find solutions.
The day is divided into several sessions, each with 45 minutes of coding, a 15-minute break, a retrospective and a team change. After a coding session comes probably the worst moment of the code retreat: the code is deleted and a new start is made.
But even if your code is gone, what you have learned from the coding round remains! And to start again from scratch with a new team, it is essential to delete the code.
The focus of the Code Retreat is on clean code, not on creating a product or launching a result.
Code Retreats are organized by volunteers from the SAP community in order to strengthen the developer scene and push further development.
A short review finds clear words
By Alexander Geppart, Senior Consultant at objective partner AG
"From time to time, it is important to get out of our comfort zone in order to ultimately achieve better results." This opportunity was offered to interested ABAP developers at our last ABAP Code Retreat in Weinheim.
Damir Majer was on site with us as a trainer, co-organizer and developer and spared no effort to prepare an exciting and challenging day for us developers. The task: to develop a classic Tic Tac Toe game as a business case in ABAP. The requirement and central challenge was to use ADT, TDD and pair programming to achieve the goal. Each team had a time window for the development and had to change active developers after a certain time. The twist: after each new pair programming round, you had to delete your carefully crafted code. The worst moment for any developer, but essential for the sake of fairness! And so each newly formed team started all over again.
And that's just one example of the huge opportunities this event offers to learn from others and simply try things out. Many other topics were also put on the test table. Be it pair programming as a very powerful method to create better software, or how to create a safety net for further developments with TDD.
I can only encourage every ABAP developer to take the opportunity to attend an ABAP Code Retreat next time or, ideally, to organize one themselves. We will definitely not miss the opportunity and are already looking forward to the next ABAP Code Retreat by objective partner!
So see you next time in Weinheim!"
