The Coding Dojo Handbook

This book is full of practical advice and ideas for practicing skills such as test-driven development, refactoring, and pair programming. Perhaps you’re a team lead, and you’d like to promote good practices among your team colleagues. Maybe you lead a programming language user group and you’re looking for a fun hands-on activity to do at meetings, or are planning a brown bag lunch series at work. This book gives you all the advice you need to get your own group started.

Included is a catalogue of “Kata” coding exercises that you can try, and advice about how to choose one for your particular situation. You’ll learn various collaborative coding games, which can be a fun way to introduce a serious discussion about software design or development processes. Test-driven development is one of the key skills you’ll want to practice in the Coding Dojo, so there’s also a straightforward description of TDD you can use to explain it. Throughout the book are little “Dojo Disaster” anecdotes. They illustrate when things have gone less than perfectly, and how you can avoid such mistakes.

A dojo is a fun and rewarding activity for any bunch of coders!

What you need
The book is fairly agnostic about which programming language you’ll be using in your Coding Dojo. The “Kata” exercises sometimes have a small amount of code to get you started, and you can generally choose from several languages, including Java, C#, Javascript, Ruby and Python.

You’ll need a room to hold your Coding Dojo in, and most companies will have a suitable meeting room already. It just needs enough chairs and tables for everyone, a whiteboard, projector, and at least one computer. Often, you’ll want one computer for every two people, and internet access.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Collaborative Games for Programmers
Section 2: Organizing a Coding Dojo
Section 3: Teaching & Learning In the Dojo
Section 4: Kata Catalogue