The Mob Mentality Show
The Mob Mentality Show
The Mob Mentality Show
Garrick West on 'Building' Great Developers with XP & Agile plus the Best Debugging
48 minutes Posted Mar 24, 2025 at 8:13 pm.
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šŸ”„ How do you actually build great software developers? How do you debug like a pro? And what happens when XP (Extreme Programming) makes a comeback after the Scrum backlash?
Join us as Garrick West—a seasoned XP practitioner, Agile coach, and software craftsmanship advocate—dives into:āœ… Building Agile Software Developers: From XP mentorship to industry-academia collaborationāœ… The Best Debugging Strategies: Unpacking The Debugging Book and applying its rules in a mobāœ… Reviving XP & Software Crafting: Why XP is more crucial than ever in Agile teams
šŸš€ Garrick's Story: From Early Coding to XP ChampionGarrick started coding at 10 years old (at day camps in the 80s! šŸ˜…), earned a Computer Science degree, and had his development worldview shaped by reading the first edition of Extreme Programming Explained. He has worked at XP-centric organizations, trained teams in TDD (Test-Driven Development), Ensemble Programming, and CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment), and even revamped a college curriculum from Waterfall to XP/Scrum.
šŸŽÆ "Building" Agile Software Developers
The power of an XP coach early in a developer’s journey
Public speaking as a dev skill? (Toastmasters, teaching at community college)
What happened when Garrick helped convert a college curriculum from Waterfall to XP/Scrum?
Industry experts + academia: How can professional devs and educators collaborate better?
The apprentice model: What it means and why learning stages (like the Dreyfus Model) matter
AI & developer education: Does AI replace early learning stages, or is it just a slick salesman?
Scaling Gilded Rose Kata to different skill levels
Test Coverage as a red herring—what should we focus on instead?
šŸž Debugging: The Missing Developer SuperpowerEver heard of The Debugging Book? Most developers haven’t—but it’s a game-changer. We explore:
Debugging as problem-solving, not just "stepping through" in an IDE
The 9 Debugging Rules: From reading the manual to never throwing away a good test tool
How to gamify debugging in a mob & introduce a "debugging auditor" role
The anti-pattern of multiple experiments at once—and how to avoid it
Why debugging is like navigating a labyrinth with a million wrong paths
šŸ”„ Reviving XP & Software Crafting After the Scrum Backlash
XP fills Scrum’s missing middle: Building the right thing (Scrum) AND building it right (XP)
How Scrum without XP leads to a ā€œBall of Mudā€ in just 18 months
Why XP + Lean is the ultimate combination
Breaking free from sprints & pressure cookers—just focus on continuous iterations
Can XP stand without Scrum? Or does Scrum need XP?
šŸ’” Don’t miss this high-energy, insight-packed conversation with Garrick West!
šŸ“¢ Comment below: What’s YOUR experience with XP, Agile, or debugging challenges?Ā Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/vxLDm-13Ny4