Sharpen 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…
Category: Testing
Good 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…
Good 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…
Good 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.…
How 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…
Technical Debt Isn’t Really a Metaphor
Many years ago, Ward Cunningham posted an excellent video on YouTube regarding refactoring and “debt”. If you haven’t seen it, I have it for you, below. But…
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…
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…
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,…
Agile 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…
Agile 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. …
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…
When 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…
Real 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…
Agile 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…
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…
Why Unit Test-Driven Development is Important
People have written a ridiculous amount about the advantages of test-driven development. I won’t even bother linking to articles about it, just Google it and…