Test & Code

Latest Episodes:

181: Boost Your Django DX - Adam Johnson Feb 28, 2022

Show notes

We talk with Adam Johnson about his new book, "Boost Your Django DX".

Developer experience includes tools and practices to make developers more effective and efficient, and just plain make software development more fun and satisfying.
One of the things I love about this book is that it's not just for Django devs.
I'd guess that about half the book is about topics that all Python developers would find useful, from virtual environments to linters to testing.
But of course, also tons of tips and tools for working with Django.

Links:

“Boost Your Django DX” Released — Adam's announcement
Boost Your Django DX — The book

Lean TDD Feb 21, 2022

Show notes

Lean TDD is an attempt to reconcile some conflicting aspects of Test Driven Development and Lean Software Development.

I've mentioned Lean TDD on the podcast a few times and even tried to do a quick outline at the end of episode 162.

This episode is a more complete outline, or at least a first draft.

If you feel you've got a good understanding of TDD, and it's working awesome for you, that's great. Keep doing what you're doing. There are no problems.

For me, the normal way TDD is taught just doesn't work. So I'm trying to come up with a spin on some old ideas to make it work for me. I'm hoping it works for you as well.

I'm calling the new thing Lean TDD. It's inspired by decades of experience writing software and influence from dozens of sources, including Pragmatic Programmer, Lean Software Development, Test-Driven Development by Example, and many blog posts and wiki articles.

The main highlights, however, come from the collision of ideas between Lean and TDD and how I've tried to resolve the seemingly opposing processes.

Full Transcript

Links:

Lean TDD | pythontest.com
episode 162: Flavors of TDD
What is Test Driven Development (TDD)? | Agile Alliance
Test First Programming / Test First Development | pythontest.com
episode 7: The Waterfall Model and “Managing the Development of Large Software Systems”
episode 51: Feature Testing
The testing renaissance — Twitter Engineering blog post about Feature Testing
Lean software development - Wikipedia

If you like Test & Code, I think you'll also like Python People

Python People is a new podcast about getting to know the people who make Python and our community awesome.
Be sure to check out pythonpeople.fm.

180: Lean TDD Feb 21, 2022

Show notes

Lean TDD is an attempt to reconcile some conflicting aspects of Test Driven Development and Lean Software Development.

I've mentioned Lean TDD on the podcast a few times and even tried to do a quick outline at the end of episode 162.

This episode is a more complete outline, or at least a first draft.

If you feel you've got a good understanding of TDD, and it's working awesome for you, that's great. Keep doing what you're doing. There are no problems.

For me, the normal way TDD is taught just doesn't work. So I'm trying to come up with a spin on some old ideas to make it work for me. I'm hoping it works for you as well.

The main highlights, however, come from the collision of ideas between Lean and TDD and how I've tried to resolve the seemingly opposing processes.

Links:

Lean TDD | pythontest.com
episode 162: Flavors of TDD
What is Test Driven Development (TDD)? | Agile Alliance
Test First Programming / Test First Development | pythontest.com
episode 7: The Waterfall Model and “Managing the Development of Large Software Systems”
episode 51: Feature Testing
The testing renaissance — Twitter Engineering blog post about Feature Testing
Lean software development - Wikipedia

Exploratory Testing Feb 09, 2022

Show notes

Exploratory testing is absolutely an essential part of a testing strategy.
This episode discusses what exploratory testing is, its benefits, and how it fits within a framework of relying on automated tests for most of our testing.

Full Transcript

If you like Test & Code, I think you'll also like Python People

Python People is a new podcast about getting to know the people who make Python and our community awesome.
Be sure to check out pythonpeople.fm.

179: Exploratory Testing Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

The Five Factors of Automated Software Testing Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

"There are five practical reasons that we write tests. Whether we realize it or not, our personal testing philosophy is based on how we judge the relative importance of these reasons." - Sarah Mei

This episode discusses the factors.

Sarah's order:

Verify the code is working correctly
Prevent future regressions
Document the code’s behavior
Provide design guidance
Support refactoring

Brian's order:

Verify the code is working correctly
Prevent future regressions
Support refactoring
Provide design guidance
Document the code’s behavior

The episode includes reasons why I've re-ordered them.

Full Transcript

Links:

Five Factor Testing - Sarah Mei

If you like Test & Code, I think you'll also like Python People

Python People is a new podcast about getting to know the people who make Python and our community awesome.
Be sure to check out pythonpeople.fm.

178: The Five Factors of Automated Software Testing Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

"There are five practical reasons that we write tests. Whether we realize it or not, our personal testing philosophy is based on how we judge the relative importance of these reasons." - Sarah Mei

This episode discusses the factors.

Sarah's order:

Verify the code is working correctly
Prevent future regressions
Document the code’s behavior
Provide design guidance
Support refactoring

Brian's order:

Verify the code is working correctly
Prevent future regressions
Support refactoring
Provide design guidance
Document the code’s behavior

The episode includes reasons why I've re-ordered them.

Links:

Five Factor Testing - Sarah Mei

Unit Test vs Integration Test and The Testing Trophy Jan 28, 2022

Show notes

A recent Twitter thread by Simon Willison reminded me that I've been meaning to do an episode on the testing trophy.
This discussion is about the distinction between unit and integration tests, what those terms mean, and where we should spend our testing time.

Full Transcript

Links:

Simon Willison's Twitter Thread
The Testing Trophy and Testing Classifications — Kent C Dodds
Write tests. Not too many. Mostly integration. — Kent C Dodds
On the Diverse And Fantastical Shapes of Testing — Martin Fowler

If you like Test & Code, I think you'll also like Python People

Python People is a new podcast about getting to know the people who make Python and our community awesome.
Be sure to check out pythonpeople.fm.

177: Unit Test vs Integration Test and The Testing Trophy Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Links:

Simon Willison's Twitter Thread
The Testing Trophy and Testing Classifications — Kent C Dodds
Write tests. Not too many. Mostly integration. — Kent C Dodds
On the Diverse And Fantastical Shapes of Testing — Martin Fowler

SaaS Side Projects Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

The idea of having a software as a service product sound great, doesn't it?

Solve a problem with software. Have a nice looking landing page and website. Get paying customers.

Eventually have it make enough revenue so you can turn it into your primary source of income.

There's a lot of software talent out there. We could solve lots of problems.
But going from idea to product to first customer is non-trivial.
Especially as a side hustle.
This episode discusses some of the hurdles from idea to first customer.

Brandon Braner is building Released.sh. It's a cool idea, but it's not done yet.

Brandon and I talk about building side projects: