With the recent alt.net uk conference having some good conversations on BDD, thought i'd share this post from Elizabeth Koegh for those that haven't seen it.
very good resource
Technorati tags: altnetuk, alt.net
Wednesday, February 20
Wednesday, February 13
Behavior Driven Development
At the recent Alt.NET UK conference, one of the topics that received a fair bit of conversation and debate was Behavior Driven Development and Test Driven Development. Specifically whats the difference? And is the difference just semantics?
To me, the differences are just semantics but its those semantics that make it such a valuable approach.
A recent post from Dan North sums it up pretty good:
The true benefit comes from finding an alternate way of thinking/approaching/communicating the problem.
This is an area I'd like to see the .NET community improve in.
There tends to be too much focus on a new tool or new framework being the solution to a given problem, which ultimately leads to misuse or use without understanding.
It's important to remember that the tool should not be the solution to the problem, it should support solving the problem.
Technorati Tags: altnetuk,alt.net,bdd
To me, the differences are just semantics but its those semantics that make it such a valuable approach.
A recent post from Dan North sums it up pretty good:
My goal as a developer is to deliver a system that behaves in a particular way. Whether or not it has tests is an interesting metric, but not the core purpose. “Test-driven” development will cause me to have lots of tests, but it won’t necessarily get me nearer the goal of delivering business value through software. So you can use goal-oriented vocabulary in your development process as well as your code to help maintain perspective on what you are trying to achieve.
The true benefit comes from finding an alternate way of thinking/approaching/communicating the problem.
This is an area I'd like to see the .NET community improve in.
There tends to be too much focus on a new tool or new framework being the solution to a given problem, which ultimately leads to misuse or use without understanding.
It's important to remember that the tool should not be the solution to the problem, it should support solving the problem.
Technorati Tags: altnetuk,alt.net,bdd
Monday, February 11
Alt.Net UK
I had the opportunity to attend the Alt.Net UK conference the other weekend. All in all, I am definitely glad i took the time.
Ian Cooper, Alan Dean and Ben Hall deserve a lot of credit for putting in the effort of organizing and for both RedGate and Conchango for backing the event. They did an outstanding job providing a hassle free environment for those participating.
The best thing about this conference was its focus on discussing better ways to do things, sharing experiences and NOT a lot on Microsoft bashing.
Sessions ranged from conversations on REST architectures to BDD to how to unit test a database. I could attempt to give summaries of each i attending but rather than do that i will just point you to here. This was another great initiative of this conference. Using a wiki and asking participants to help populate information in one place so a more broad audience can benefit and reference is a great idea.
While I am in no way an expert on the subject, I attempted to lead a session on Evolutionary Database Design and how to use tools such as dbdeploy.net to simplify following that style. But I was happy to see the session follow the open spaces concept, and shift to what those attending wanted to discuss more specifically. Some very interesting conversations around how a one click deployment type upgrading of a database could work in a non networked/very locked down environment. It resulted in a "not so sure how that'll work" answer but definitely presented a good challenge to debate. The other nugget i took away was the interesting idea of treating a stored procedures as an immutable object.
While the open spaces concept struggled a little bit, I still think it is the right way to host this type of conference. It was clear that it was a new concept to many and that led to a somewhat passive participation with a few strong personalities dominating the conversations. I expect the next one will benefit a lot from the learnings of the first.
If i happen to be lucky enough to attend the next one, i plan to.
And if you have the opportunity to attend a similar event, I highly recommend it.
Technorati Tags: altnetuk,alt.net, .net
Ian Cooper, Alan Dean and Ben Hall deserve a lot of credit for putting in the effort of organizing and for both RedGate and Conchango for backing the event. They did an outstanding job providing a hassle free environment for those participating.
The best thing about this conference was its focus on discussing better ways to do things, sharing experiences and NOT a lot on Microsoft bashing.
Sessions ranged from conversations on REST architectures to BDD to how to unit test a database. I could attempt to give summaries of each i attending but rather than do that i will just point you to here. This was another great initiative of this conference. Using a wiki and asking participants to help populate information in one place so a more broad audience can benefit and reference is a great idea.
While I am in no way an expert on the subject, I attempted to lead a session on Evolutionary Database Design and how to use tools such as dbdeploy.net to simplify following that style. But I was happy to see the session follow the open spaces concept, and shift to what those attending wanted to discuss more specifically. Some very interesting conversations around how a one click deployment type upgrading of a database could work in a non networked/very locked down environment. It resulted in a "not so sure how that'll work" answer but definitely presented a good challenge to debate. The other nugget i took away was the interesting idea of treating a stored procedures as an immutable object.
While the open spaces concept struggled a little bit, I still think it is the right way to host this type of conference. It was clear that it was a new concept to many and that led to a somewhat passive participation with a few strong personalities dominating the conversations. I expect the next one will benefit a lot from the learnings of the first.
If i happen to be lucky enough to attend the next one, i plan to.
And if you have the opportunity to attend a similar event, I highly recommend it.
Technorati Tags: altnetuk,alt.net, .net
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