At the moment I’m working on two epic challenges. One of them software based, the other on two wheels. The two wheel challenge is a mountain biking epic that involves riding 80 miles over rough terrain on a very well-known UK route called the South Downs Way. The South Downs is known for its short sharp (painful) climbs and fast exciting descents. Whenever I mention this challenge to someone new there is generally a very long pause followed by a comment like "80 miles... That's a long way to drive, and you say you’re doing it on a bike?". To which I normally reply "Did I mention I'm doing it in the dark?". That's right, this particular challenge starts at sunset and hopefully ends in time to see the sunrise.
That brings me to my other little challenge - an epic framework challenge. This challenge involves creating a new user agent interaction model for a 20 year old application. It promises some short sharp (painful) technical challenges, some long drawn out battles of the hearts and minds variety, and with any luck some good times as discoveries are celebrated. This framework will be built using a well-established architectural style (REST), but this style has many interpretations of the original research, some battle-hardened, and some pure theory. To keep life interesting there are also a number of different camps to choose from - there is even one self titled camp calling themselves the RESTafarians. I think you get the picture and you might say I'm building this framework in the dark, but I'd prefer to say we're discovering new territory.
To start either of these challenges without some sort of training and preparation would be madness. The mountain bike preparation will involve some goal setting, a plan for the event, some careful tool selection, a training schedule, and a few milestone events to test myself. Preparation for the epic framework will be no less rigorous, but we will also need great requirements, sound architecture, an excellent test harness, and some agreed milestones. This promises to be some ride.
