20-21 August 2008, Queenstown, New Zealand. Kia ora Koutou (Greetings everyone!)

Transcription

1 20-21 August 2008, Queenstown, New Zealand Kia ora Koutou (Greetings everyone!)

2 20-21 August 2008, Queenstown, New Zealand Testing for Success Indiver Nagpal

3 About me CTO, Straker Software, New Zealand Involved in web development since 1996 development, content, project management Using ColdFusion for over a decade; Flex, 3 years Currently in love with Groovy ( Testing processes Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology

4 About Straker Software Adobe technologies - ColdFusion and Flex ShadoCMS ( a large content management system written in ColdFusion ZoomFlex ( A rapid, Flex application generation software Been working at Straker for about five years

5 Agenda Touch upon high-level issues in using testing Share experiences of implementing a testing process Look at some tools that can help Basic idea: When you leave here, you have a fairly decent idea of what does it take to set up testing processes that work

6 Recognize the need for testing THE first step Ask questions like... what happens to the existing software if New functionality has to be added Fixing an issue in commonly used component Departure of a developer How do you handle these? Ideally, how would you like to handle these?

7 We test anyway... All of us test our code In ColdFusion Create a component (CFC), with methods Create a script (CFM) Instantiate the CFC in CFM Fire methods of the instantiated CFC Eyeball results Commonly used approach

8 But what is wrong with this? Unsystematic Unorganized Dependent on an individual Not repeatable in different situations Does not lend itself to automation

9 Why do we continue like this?

10 Organizational attitude? Perhaps the most important one to change If an organization does not value testing, developers won t do it Build a case for return on investment Reduced time to market Reduced ongoing support Better quality software Identify in-house lobbyist

11 Consider this... 80% of avoidable rework comes from 20% of the defects 90% of the downtime comes from 10% of the defects Disciplined personal practices can reduce defect introduction rates by up to 75% Peer reviews catch 60% of the defects

12 Individual factors All of the significant battles are waged within the self Sheldon Kopp (If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him, 1976) Recognizing that the only Constant is Change From being a developer to a technologist From being lazy to proactive Quick exercise: Think of what the internet was when you first experienced it. Compare it to how you use it now.

13 Technological change Perhaps the easiest aspect Formal testing becoming common in scripting languages Multiple frameworks: testing, mocking Integration with IDEs Integration with automation tools Cheap hardware, free software

14 Testing Frameworks #1 ColdFusion Unit testing MXUnit ( CFUnit ( RocketUnit ( CFCUnit ( HTML User Interface (UI) Testing Selenium ( Canoo Webtest (

15 Testing Frameworks #2 Flex Unit Testing FlexUnit ( DPUnit ( ASUnit ( Database Unit Testing DBUnit (

16 Choosing a Framework Needs vary for Different organizations Different technologies Defining criteria for choosing a framework is important

17 Choosing a ColdFusion Framework Integration with IDE (Eclipse) Support for automation (Ant, Continuous Integration tools) Reporting (Standard formats like JUnit) Extendability (Creating own assertions) Easy generation of dummy tests Community support MXUnit

18 HTML UI Testing Framework Easy recording tests Conversion of test scripts into Java/Groovy Reporting (Standard formats like JUnit) Support for automation Community support Selenium

19 Writing tests Tests for new functionality Test generators play a big role Create tests, watch them fail, add test logic, watch them pass Remember, the earlier you catch issues, the lesser the cost Tests for existing codebase Time consuming Code does not lend itself easily to be tested Setting aside regular time for writing tests - difficult to justify/ implement

20 Leverage IDE support Eclipse is a great IDE CFEclipse for ColdFusion development Plugins for other languages: Groovy MXUnit integrates beautifully CFUnit comes pretty close Provide views for loading and running tests Setup for loading application and session scopes before running tests

21 Automation Manual running of tests does not scale Use Apache Ant for automating running of tests Use continuous integration server like Hudson to Create build > Run tests > View reports Ensures that new changes do not break existing code Host on fast/multiple servers

22 Source Control Management How many use a source control management system (SCM)? Subversion is very good Works well with ColdFusion development teams Haven t made up my mind about next generation SCM tools like Mercurial, Git, Baazar Great client tools -- TortoiseSVN, Subclipse, SmartSVN Host on fast servers -- either in-house or externally

23 Code Review Systems SPEED LIMIT 55 Remember peer-reviews catch up to 60% of defects Establishing a Code Review System - Review Board Works in conjunction with an SCM system Allows peer review before code is checked into a source control system A little involved to set them up, but well worth the effort

24 Groovy -- the language to learn Simple scripting language that compiles into Java Easy to learn; rapid application development Java libraries written in Groovy can be used directly in CF In-built support for Ant Using Ant with scripting rather than XML Integrates very well with CI servers like Hudson

25 Testing Champion Someone in the organization needs to advocates testing Someone with perceived competence and experience Sets up testing processes and guidelines Reviews processes and refines Occasionally brings out the whip

26 Summing up If you are not testing, you are crazy. - Thomas Burleson Keep in mind the organizational, individual and technological factors that impact testing processes Get organizational buy-in Choose frameworks carefully Testing and Continuous Integration go hand in hand Be the Testing Champion in your organization Embrace change

27 Thanks for your time!