You enter the dungeon, as the echoes of your footsteps sound around you, something catches your eye - is that… oh, oh no.

You grab your trusty sword and with your fellow adventurers, you seek to overcome the mighty challenge that lays ahead of you: building software.

This talk is a look at some of the parallels between Dungeons and Dragons, and software development.

We’ll see how lessons learned through delving into dungeons and fighting monsters with a party of adventurers can help teams of developers when building software in the real world.

Are you ready to join me in a mighty quest for better software?

Comments

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Michael Bush at 20:36 on 12 Sep 2018

Very interesting talk from an entertaining speaker. It does feel a little long tho for the topic but other people may feel differently.

Well thought through, potential to expand to other members of the team?

Drew McLellan at 20:44 on 12 Sep 2018

Could just be me, but I couldn’t unpick the analogies quickly enough before the next one came along. I don’t work in a team, so there’s always an additional layer of relating needed with team talks. Coupled with the thick layer of analogy I’m afraid I was completely lost. I literally don’t know what the talk was about. (Also didn’t know who the example comic book / movie super heroes were, so was again lost.) Sorry ?

I think when doing this again it would be good to stress in the description that it’s suited to people who work in teams to save others getting lost.

It's very rarely that we get a campaign explained as part of a phpsw. Found the talk very refreshing as a guy who has dabbled in D&D I found the comparisons to work very well.

Jonny at 20:45 on 12 Sep 2018

A very entertaining and unique way to get your points across! It might help to add a a pause or break character a bit more as you change from story to reality as sometimes the switch wasn't entirely clear toward the end

Matt Adshead at 20:45 on 12 Sep 2018

Can't fault it 10/10

Tom Adam at 20:46 on 12 Sep 2018

Loved the hat. Really good talk. I didn't recognise any of the characters in the grid other than Loki, perhaps review those?

Peter Stone at 20:47 on 12 Sep 2018

A really slick talk, really enjoyed the analogies as a regular d&d player, but also thought the points raised of running a team and team makeup were good.

Ryan Mauger at 20:48 on 12 Sep 2018

Fun and informative.

Paul Marks at 21:23 on 12 Sep 2018

Great delivery and entertaining talk. Felt slightly less geeky than normal having not played d&d or knowing the background to the avengers characters (I think), but found the comparisons/make up of teams and changes to teams relatable.

I found it a kind of celebration of people's different approaches to problem solving. Entertaining too. I wonder how it would apply to a larger open-source type community.

It's great to see a different angle things we as developer have to deal with most days. A good talk. Entertaining speaker. Clean, clear slides. Good font!

I came to this talk knowing nothing of DnD. I'm sure others will be in a similar situation. I think you have 2 choices for conferences:
Update abstract and/or say very near the start that this talk assumes basic knowledge of DnD. This allows those with no knowledge to go to another talk, or at least stay having been forewarned. Much in the same way speakers might say this talk assumes working knowledge of technology X.
Or better still, give a DnD 101 for people like me, so we can stay and get the most out of it. I don't think it'll take long to get everyone up to speed.

I didn't quite get the grid bit, but that's probably just me.

I thought there were times when there wasn't a clear enough delineation between the story telling and application to real life. Perhaps whilst telling stories you could have the hat on, and then when doing the applying to real life bit remove the hat. (Or have 2 positions on the stage depending on what you're doing).
Also there were spells when it sounded like you were reading which felt less engaging than when you were speaking normally. I realise, but only a few days after the event, that this might be deliberate. Again a DnD 101 at the start might help with noobs like me.

I think this is a very good approach to a subject. To make it 5 star you just need to make sure everyone knows the DnD basics.