If you've encountered any kind of description of Agile methods, Extreme programming, etc., you know how much they emphasise good communication -- from communication between .
My software engg prof, John Favaro, and his wife Patrizia Falcone have a cool idea on how to improve communication -- theatre.
Right from trying to 'be' the elements ('OK Hanisha, now try being Fire'), to being a mirror, to playing a weird version of Passing the Parcel (where each of us had to modify the parcel in some way, then use it --all in mime), this was totally unlike any drama one had ever done.
It was an eye-opener... I found myself saying "I can't do this... I can't make a fool of myself" way too often!
If you're like me, you're thinking... 'Fun! But what does this have to do with building software?'
Think about what extreme programming stands for -- short incremental build cycles, close-knit teams of developers and clients, constantly refactoring your designs in a million small ways to improve them -- all add up to agility, improvisation, responsiveness.
And where better to learn all these, than theatre, where the concepts have been used for centuries, if not millenia?
Using improvisation in the theatrical sense, and then wondering how to apply it to your software development, is mind boggling stuff. Something one can admit to liking... Now that the marks are in, and it doesn't sound like sucking up to a prof :)
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