Test-Driven Development - A Development-based Process Alternative, Scott Bellware, Triangle Technologies

To view Scott Bellware's January ASPIN presentation on "A Development-based process Alternative", please click here.

Overview:
Do you have a software development methodology? Does the project management effort and the actual programming work feel like separate worlds that struggle to co-exist? Does handing over designs to programmers feel like too much prayer and not enough method? Do you still struggle with that test effort that seems to come too little, too late? What about ongoing maintenance?

Test-Driven Development is one of the important innovations from the emerging Agile Methodologies. It forces software development professionals to re-examine some assumptions about software design and programming - "What is design?", "Who should do detailed design?", and "When should design end and programming begin?". Test-Driven Development provides a framework to take action in the face of the ambiguities and indecisiveness that often stem from these questions, while challenging fundamental assumptions about the software maintenance cost curve.

This presentation seeks to will debunk a few Test-Driven Development and Agile Methodologies Myths, including Test-Driven Development Myth #1: "Test-Driven Development is about software testing and validation." (Test-Driven Development is an act of specification and design). An overview of the process of Test-Driven Development will be provided. It will address the roles of developer, project manager, test personnel, and other stakeholders.

A Follow-On TDD Workshop
This presentation is the groundwork for a free all-day TDD workshop. The first workshop will take place at the Austin Microsoft Technology Center and will provide a day-long workshop on Test-Driven Development for both programmers and support personnel. Those who attend will get a hands-on feel for the process of test-driven development. [Event Sponsors: Austin Software Process Improvement Network (www.austin-spin.org) & the Austin .NET User Group (www.adnug.org).] A second java-centric workshop is expected as well, still to be scheduled, in cooperation with the Austin Java Users Group (www.austinjug.org)


About the Speaker:
Scott Bellware is a Test-Driven Development and OO mentor for Triangle Technologies in Austin, TX. Scott speaks at regional technology groups as well as at the DevTeach conferences on Object-Relational Persistence and Test-Driven Development. He was awarded an MVP for C# in 2004 by the C# product group at Microsoft, Redmond for his work in the technology community including the co-founding the Austin .NET User Group, the Austin Software Architecture User Group, and acting as the Chairman of the Speaker Bureau Committee for the International .NET Association. Scott is also the co-founder the Austin Interop event that brought six software technology groups in Austin together for a day of presentations from world-renowned speakers on J2EE and NET interoperability.