Agile SkillSwap

I had the sheer pleasure of giving a SkillSwap talk on agile with Tom entitled 'Agile: Iterating the Reasons' on 21st November.  As it occurred the day after XPDay, although shattered, there were a lot of arguments fresh in our heads.

I did the dry conceptual basics and Tom countered with the enthused practicalities.  It was the first time I had ever co-presented and it turned out to be a complete joy, together we could look at a subject from more than one angle and bounce ideas off each other.  I think it also gave a nicer pace.

I'd be curious to see whether much study has been done on co-presenting for teaching - I think there may be a strong parallel to pair programming.  Quality was improved, interest (at least on our side!) was maintained, and - as this type of presenting is much less draining - may be more efficient.  Teaching is exhausting, but much less so under these conditions.  Theoretically it may be possible to teach more classes under this model where the work is shared.

I loved doing this, and just hope that the people attending gained something from it as well.  Our slides are available on request.