Code Ninjas Westfield, a coding center for kids, in collaboration with Microsoft MakeCode is celebrating Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). This is a national annual initiative that inspires kids to take interest in computer science. Throughout the whole week, Code Ninjas Westfield will host Hour of Code sessions leading up to a final Game Jam contest on Dec. 12 , where kids can participate in a friendly competition to build video games for a chance to win cool prizes. The top game will be submitted to MakeCode arcade Game Jam. Protima Pandey, owner of Code Ninjas Westfield, commented:

“At Code Ninjas Westfield we are committed to advancing kids’ STEM education in a fun way – through building video games. We are thrilled to provide safe opportunities for kids to explore the world of computer programming and give back to our local community through this year’s annual Hour of Code events and Game Jam.”

All events are free and open to the public. Participants taking part in Hour of Code and/or Game Jam do not need any prior coding experience. Everyone has to sign up to participate from here.

Dash robots operate like remote-controlled cars that kids can program to act in certain ways. The toy can dance, light up, make sounds and move around obstacles and users do not need any previous coding experience to play. A mobile device is needed to download two apps so users can program and play with their new sidekick. Sara Grant, youth services manager with Surrey Libraries, commented:

“Our children, they’re really growing up in this new world. The digital age and digital literacy almost became basic literacy during this time. We really want them to understand how technology works, how the technology around them works because it’s going to be part of their future.”

Grant said the kits became available at the end of June and the response from the public has been overwhelming. As of Monday morning, there were 600 people waitlisted for their turn with Dash. The kits can be borrowed for two weeks using a Surrey Libraries card. Grant said when the waitlist is not as long, people will be able to take a robot kit home for three weeks.

Grant, speaking Monday on CBC’s The Early Edition, said before the pandemic the library was hosting in-person learning sessions with the robots for kids and they were a big hit. She said while the Dash robots will connect to any Android or Apple device, she recognizes not all families have access to a mobile device and that she hopes to resume those sessions soon so no one is excluded from the fun.

According to a report commissioned by Rollbar, a software development platform, the COVID-19 work-from-home policies had affected developers differently. Although 77% said there had been a significant impact on their work — there was a big difference between age groups.

Younger developers, classed as Gen Z, overwhelmingly (90%) said that COVID-19 had impacted their jobs, while older developers, or baby boomers, were less concerned — with 52% reporting a significant impact on their work.

The 2021 State of Software Code Report asked 950 software developers in the US about their experiences. It was conducted by Propeller Insights in late December 2020. Brian Rue, CEO and co-founder at Rollbar, said:

“Our research shows that some developers have struggled with remote work while others have thrived. But nearly half said that they are ready to head back to the office. Those who have grappled with isolation, and balancing work and home life, are especially keen to return to shared workspaces.”

About one-fifth of developers complained about higher stress levels because of working from home. They had trouble striking a healthy work-life balance and had to work extra hours. They also highlighted issues such as lower budgets, smaller teams, and that the work was far more challenging because there weren’t the same opportunities to collaborate with colleagues. Cory Virok, CTO and co-founder at Rollbar, also commented:

“Coding is a team sport. Developers want to run through their thought processes in person. It’s always easier to do this in the office than on Zoom.”

Interestingly, about one-half of developers had not worked from home before the COVID-19 policies were implemented.  Additional complaints: 19% claimed damage to their mental health from working from home, and one in 10 said it had a negative effect on family life. About one-half of developers in the North-East US are keen to go back to the office compared with 37% in the South — possibly indicating that space for a home office might be a factor.

Rollbar said that it has more than 5,000 companies using its continuous development platform, cutting the time developers spend finding and fixing bugs which the report showed is much tougher from a home office.

Can we say that the user story is done when it is coded and all acceptance tests for it are passed? Some business representatives may say yes, but they do not know all the peculiarities of software development because such criteria are not fully visible to them.  Another situation: a new feature that changed the business process was developed and tested according to the best software practices, but users struggle to use this feature because they are not sure about the changes. Maybe a proper user manual or user training is needed in this case?

Here comes a simple but very powerful technique called Definition of Done (DoD). The technique helps:

• Identify all activities which need to be completed for the user story to meet the customer needs
• Bring all participants to the common understanding of when the user story should be considered done
• Reduce risks, as all activities are listed there is less risk that some activity will be missed

According to Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide v2, Definition of Done is “a technique where the team agrees on, and prominently displays, a list of criteria which must be met before a backlog item is considered done.”

The best form of Definition of Done representation is a checklist of activities that has to demonstrate the agreed value and quality of a user story. This checklist should include certain acceptance and quality criteria.

Definition of Done may be defined for different levels of project work. For example, in the Agile/Scrum framework these levels of work could be user story, sprint, and release.

To sum up, the three main benefits of DoD are:

• Decreasing Misunderstanding
• Decreasing Risk of Delay and Budget Overrun
• Ensuring the User Story/Sprint /Release Success