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Can you point to examples of how you do use whiteboards? I am a self-taught programmer with my own way of noting design strategies and having a tough time findi

Can you point to examples of how you do use whiteboards? I am a self-taught programmer with my own way of noting design strategies and having a tough time finding examples of this.

organsnyder 8y ago
Not OP, but I use whiteboards to sketch system designs and things like that. For instance, I'd sketch out the path that a request might take through a complicated system (intake via a REST service, flows through a queue, consumed by another service, persisted to a database...). That's the sort of thing that I would be comfortable doing as part of an interview—though I wouldn't expect a junior developer to be able to do it. AFAICT, the backlash is around interviews where candidates are asked to write code (or pseudocode) on a whiteboard. Being able to implement bubble sort on a whiteboard does not correlate very well with being able to deliver business value, in my experience.
- xur17 8y ago
  > Being able to implement bubble sort on a whiteboard does not correlate very well with being able to deliver business value, in my experience. To add to this, it's being able to write code on a whiteboard in a high pressure situation while talking about every step you're taking. Over time I've gotten more comfortable with this, but mainly by doing more interviews, not by getting better at my job.
  - Azeolus 8y ago
    If you ever find yourself in a situation that Broadcast television would have us believe, you'll be excellent at coding that hotfix into a real time system as the president of the United States looks over your shoulder.
  - extralego 8y ago
    When I was younger, this would probably make me feel insufficient but I have done enough ‘learning stuff’ by now that I expect this kind of comfort to only come with experience.
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
Agreed, i would love to see a Youtube video of the right way to use Whiteboards like OP is talking about.
brokenwren 8y ago
I think a lot of the other posters are correct. Diagrams of classes, interactions, event flows, dependencies, network architectures, and yes, even pseudo-code. Basically, if it is an idea, concept or design, draw it out. If it is functionally correct code that compiles, screen-cast and type it out.
theamk 8y ago
Here is a nice link I randomly found on google: https://leanpub.com/visualising-software-architecture/read#leanpub-auto-what-happened-to-ssadm-rup-uml-etc https://leanpub.com/visualising-software-architecture/read#l... I spent about 30 seconds looking at it, but at least the first chapter 1 seems to be about proper whiteboard techniques
- extralego 8y ago
  Nice. Thanks. To all the responders to my query, your answers are super helpful. Being self-taught, there are just these few holes the internet doesn’t quite cover. But a little reaching out on HN goes a long way in filling the gaps.
mrep 8y ago
Last time I used a whiteboard was when I was re-architecting some classes and I mapped out the class and function names and how they interacted with each other. This enabled me to see what changes I would need to make/add to get the desired effect. The time before that was for a database migration where I mapped out each step that had to be done and in which order.

Can you point to examples of how you do use whiteboards? I am a self-taught programmer with my own way of noting design strategies and having a tough time finding examples of this.

organsnyder 8y ago

Not OP, but I use whiteboards to sketch system designs and things like that. For instance, I'd sketch out the path that a request might take through a complicated system (intake via a REST service, flows through a queue, consumed by another service, persisted to a database...). That's the sort of thing that I would be comfortable doing as part of an interview—though I wouldn't expect a junior developer to be able to do it. AFAICT, the backlash is around interviews where candidates are asked to write code (or pseudocode) on a whiteboard. Being able to implement bubble sort on a whiteboard does not correlate very well with being able to deliver business value, in my experience.

xur17 8y ago
> Being able to implement bubble sort on a whiteboard does not correlate very well with being able to deliver business value, in my experience. To add to this, it's being able to write code on a whiteboard in a high pressure situation while talking about every step you're taking. Over time I've gotten more comfortable with this, but mainly by doing more interviews, not by getting better at my job.
- Azeolus 8y ago
  If you ever find yourself in a situation that Broadcast television would have us believe, you'll be excellent at coding that hotfix into a real time system as the president of the United States looks over your shoulder.
- extralego 8y ago
  When I was younger, this would probably make me feel insufficient but I have done enough ‘learning stuff’ by now that I expect this kind of comfort to only come with experience.

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago

Agreed, i would love to see a Youtube video of the right way to use Whiteboards like OP is talking about.

brokenwren 8y ago

I think a lot of the other posters are correct. Diagrams of classes, interactions, event flows, dependencies, network architectures, and yes, even pseudo-code. Basically, if it is an idea, concept or design, draw it out. If it is functionally correct code that compiles, screen-cast and type it out.

theamk 8y ago

Here is a nice link I randomly found on google: https://leanpub.com/visualising-software-architecture/read#leanpub-auto-what-happened-to-ssadm-rup-uml-etc https://leanpub.com/visualising-software-architecture/read#l... I spent about 30 seconds looking at it, but at least the first chapter 1 seems to be about proper whiteboard techniques

extralego 8y ago
Nice. Thanks. To all the responders to my query, your answers are super helpful. Being self-taught, there are just these few holes the internet doesn’t quite cover. But a little reaching out on HN goes a long way in filling the gaps.

mrep 8y ago

Last time I used a whiteboard was when I was re-architecting some classes and I mapped out the class and function names and how they interacted with each other. This enabled me to see what changes I would need to make/add to get the desired effect. The time before that was for a database migration where I mapped out each step that had to be done and in which order.