---
title: Test Driven Talks
url: https://www.grahambrooks.com/post/2010-11-07-test-driven-talks/
date: 2010-11-07T00:00:00+00:00
author: Graham Brooks
tags:
- observability
- Writing
- Testing
---

# Test Driven Talks

Taking a leaf out of the XP book and in particular test driven
development I have had some successes in using this idea when doing a
presentation. I have dubbed the idea 'Test driven talks'. The basic
idea is to quickly canvas the audience for things that they would like
covered during the presentation. Once these have been captured on a
whiteboard or flip-chart.


The next step is to filter the topics in the same way as an agile team
accepts stories into an iteration it is likely that I wont be able to
cover all the expectations from the audience. The nice thing about
this step is that I can manage people's expectations. If I accept a
question or topic then people should expect me to satisfy them. If I
reject the topic then people know that I won't be able to satisfy
their need.

If the talk is going to be repeated then each time it is done
involving the 'Test Driven Talk' approach allows me to tune the talk
to satisfy a greater proportion of the audience. It also provides
inspiration for other related talks – based on audience need.

I am not sure how this approach will work for larger audiences. And I
am not sure what the break point in audience size is but hopefully
over time I will be able to refine the technique and gather more data
about how effective it is. Given that I am not a known or popular
speaker finding speaking opportunities is likely to be a challenge but
maybe in the space of a year I might find enough events to gather
enough data points to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the
technique.

If anyone else is trying this sort of thing I would love to hear about
your experiences