Testing to find defects is waste
Have you ever heard someone say that testing to find defects is waste? I’ve heard it and I’ve said it when teaching courses. But people aren’t hearing the whole message!The other half of the message...
View ArticleAgile Architecture and Agile Testing – New Courses on the horizon
Exciting news! Some associates of mine are currently completing work on some new courses Agile For All will be able to offer. The two courses are Agile Architecture and Agile Testing. In fact, it is...
View ArticleReal World Agile Testing with Fit and FitNesse
Another short blog entry. This time it is to announce that we’ll be hosting Rob Myers teaching a great agile testing course using Fit and FitNesse on March 23 and 24. The course will be held at the...
View ArticleWhen in Doubt Ask “How Will I Know I’ve Done That?”
Tired of not knowing exactly what to create or test? Get in the habit of asking the magic question “How will I know I’ve done that?” In other words, ask the Product Owner (or whatever person you have...
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Agile antipattern: Using manual tests
In an agile environment manual testing is fine – except for when it isn’t! In particular, everyone recognizes manual regression testing takes time. When using a traditional development process...
View ArticleAgile antipattern: Code freezes during each iteration
Over the past 18 months I’ve encountered a number of teams where it is standard practice to have a code freeze late in the iteration. The reason given for this was “to allow QA to test what we created...
View ArticleAgile anti-pattern: Going to longer iterations
This is another common theme among teams just starting with agile. It usually goes something like this: The team has an unsuccessful iteration. They determine all the unfinished work is testing....
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New to agile? Remember the power of automation
As this blog entry is published I am teaching an agile/scrum course to a client in Flanders, New Jersey. You might want to ask “Bob, how can you do that? Isn’t the client upset when you blogwhile...
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Agile antipattern: Burndown “wall”
Does your team have an iteration burndown chart (giving credit only for completed stories) look like the one to the left? If so there are a couple of possible explanations. Last week I blogged about...
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Agile antipattern: Changing the definition of done
Ever see a burndown chart like the one to the left? I’ve been on a big burndown chart kick lately and when I saw this one I just couldn’t resist using it. This one is a bit different from my previous...
View ArticleHow TDD is More Than Simply Unit Testing
I was recently asked about the difference between unit-testing and Test-Driven Development (TDD). Specifically, why—if the end results are the same—would I recommend TDD over writing unit tests after...
View ArticleGood Design
I’ve learned not to assume a team has experienced a variety of software design skills. Some are writing elegant functional-paradigm code in archaic, challenging languages. Others are writing...
View ArticleGood Design, Part II: Code Smells
Last month we talked about good software design and introduced the notion of code smells. Code smells are names given to those instinctual thoughts you have whenever you look at a chunk of...
View ArticleGood Design, Part III: Refactoring
Remember this? public static ProductBean installProduct(String p) { ProductBean pi = new ProductBean(p); Connection c = new Connection("$Updates"); for (Record x : c.getAllForKey("PLUG_INS",...
View ArticleGood Design, part IV: The Role of Tests
We’ve seen how refactoring becomes the primary design activity on an Agile team. Diligent, confident refactoring is possible to the degree that the code is tested through an automated test suite. If...
View ArticleSharpen Your Knives
You’ve heard the old adage about the lumberjack who—in order to cut a tree in an hour—will take 45 minutes to sharpen the saw? This old analogy really needs updating: Not many of us are all that...
View ArticleAgile anti-pattern: Going to longer iterations
This is another common theme among teams just starting with agile. It usually goes something like this: The team has an unsuccessful iteration. They determine all the unfinished work is testing....
View ArticleClik here to view.
New to agile? Remember the power of automation
As this blog entry is published I am teaching an agile/scrum course to a client in Flanders, New Jersey. You might want to ask “Bob, how can you do that? Isn’t the client upset when you blogwhile...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Agile antipattern: Burndown “wall”
Does your team have an iteration burndown chart (giving credit only for completed stories) look like the one to the left? If so there are a couple of possible explanations. Last week I blogged about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Agile antipattern: Changing the definition of done
Ever see a burndown chart like the one to the left? I’ve been on a big burndown chart kick lately and when I saw this one I just couldn’t resist using it. This one is a bit different from my previous...
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