Andy's observations as he continues to attempt to know all that is .NET...

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Coding Challenge,an alternative to regular class room training

 

What do most engineers want to do, “Build Things”. Regular training classes are good at introducing new technology, but what if you want to take it further; to stretch and motivate your senior developers. This was the requirement that our major investment bank client presented to Rock Solid Knowledge the co-developed solution was to produce a Coding Challenge…

The Training Day One

The first day was spent with a deep dive into Silverlight; all teams had prior knowledge of WPF. The focus of the day was to effectively demonstrate the differences and similarities of the two technologies, giving the teams the ability to deliver a high quality Silverlight solution to match the code challenge requirements document.

The Challenge Day Two

The three person teams, of senior developers, spent the next 24 hours straight building a working product to the supplied specification. Not only did this test their ability to apply the new technology but demonstrated who ships and who doesn’t. Failing to organise is clearly highlighted when you only have a short period of time to deliver.

The Assessment Day Three

After working nearly flat out for 24 hours the teams submitted their solutions to be assessed by Rock Solid Knowledge. Initial marks were given, with each team then given a technical grilling on their solution to provide feedback on what was good and bad.

The Winner

The winning team all received iPads, a satisfactory reward for all their hard efforts and our client introduced a new technology in a vibrant and compelling way.

If this has wetted your appetite a more detailed write up can be downloaded from here or if you would just simply like to know how we could bring this experience to your company contact us by clicking here

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About Me

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Im a freelance consultant for .NET based technology. My last real job, was at Cisco System were I was a lead architect for Cisco's identity solutions. I arrived at Cisco via aquisition and prior to that worked in small startups. The startup culture is what appeals to me, and thats why I finally left Cisco after seven years.....I now filll my time through a combination of consultancy and teaching for Developmentor...and working on insane startups that nobody with an ounce of sense would look twice at...