Lessons Learned From 10 Years Of Testing

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Lessons Learned From Ten Years Of Testing © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 1

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TL;DR -- Tests are made of people! © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 2

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This talk contains no code or tests (Sorry, not sorry) © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 3

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December 2002 I am six months into working on a poorly-constructed dating web application where he made most of the mistakes himself with the help of other people who didn't know any better © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 4

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Formula for burnout — super-long commute — "mandatory" overtime © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 5

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The Launch Crashed Hard — so many assumptions were wrong © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 6

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"Hey Chris, I think you should read this!" © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 7

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It was the moment that changed everything for me © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 8

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It was the moment that changed everything for me Not even remotely kidding © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 9

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So what were the tools? — SimpleTest — Lots of swearing © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 10

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PHPUnit hadn't even been released yet! © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 11

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So li!le PHP-speciﬁc testing info was available Caused much sadness © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 12

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Lesson Number One Having one person enthusiastic about writing tests simply isn't enough © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 13

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Cowboy Testing For Anger And Sadness You can start off being the only one writing tests... © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 14

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Cowboy Testing For Anger And Sadness ...but company culture might make you regret it © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 15

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Tests will continue until bugs no longer happen Much complaining ensued (a common theme continuing to present-day) © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 16

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Tests will continue until bugs no longer happen — Tests got written — I started getting more interested in the process — Lost a political struggle to get the job I wanted so I left © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 17

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Early 2006... My gateway into OSS... and tests... and how to be a difﬁcult person... and how to deal with difﬁcult people... was via the CakePHP project © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 18

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Lesson Number Two Tests for a project mean that at least somebody used to care at some point about what they were doing © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 19

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— tests provide windows into bugs — tests are still written by people — people are willing to argue about everything and anything © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 20

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Tests driven by bug ﬁxes help ﬁnd all the weird decisions you made but don't remember why © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 21

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They also show you how to actually use the code © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 22

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Think of them as stealth documentation © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 23

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But tests are written by people, and bad tests happen. © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 24

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Critics like to use this as evidence that tests don't work. © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 25

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They are wrong. © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 26

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I spent some years in the wilderness © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 27

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I started to really learn about testing © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 28

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Lesson Number 3 People struggle to learn about testing without help © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 29

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— TDD examples are way too simple — People seek shortcuts to solutions — Repeating theme - people want to argue about tools and techniques © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 30

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TDD isn't simple because testing isn't simple © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 31

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And your code isn't simple © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 32

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It's way more important to teach people about tools and techniques © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 33

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Then they can apply them to their own code © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 34

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So you might snort at yet-another- FizzBuzz example © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 35

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But if you're not paying a!ention to the PROCESS you will miss out © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 36

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Testing is something that cannot be learned in isolation © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 37

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Testing IS code wri!en for a SPECIFIC PURPOSE © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 38

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I am changing what I teach © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 39

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It's no longer enough to just show people how to use the tools © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 40

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You have to show them where, and when, and why to use them © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 41

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Desperately Seeking Shortcuts — "I'd be ﬁnished with this task if I didn't have to write the tests!!!" © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 42

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Just lots and lots of work to try and create things with the fewest bugs possible © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 44

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I started writing books and giving lots of talks © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 45

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Lesson Number 4 All these testing problems and techniques were solved back in the 1970's © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 46

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All the techniques we argue about today were invented in the 1970's and 1980's © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 48

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Programmer hubris led many to think they were the ﬁrst to ﬁgure it out © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 49

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Programming-related discussions turn toxic very easily... © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 51

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Your best weapon against toxicity is EMPATHY © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 53

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Testing your code requires you to change how you write your code © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 54

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People like to change WHAT THEY USE but NOT HOW THEY USE IT © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 56

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Funny how the quest for the new and shiny never seems to include tools help them make things bug free © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 57

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Shameless Plugs My name is Chris Hartjes — Staff Test Engineer at Mozilla (focussed on services) — Twitter performance artist -> @grmpyprogrammer — Buy my stuff at https://grumpy-learning.com © Chris Hartjes @grmpyprogrammer - Symfony Live Berlin (Oktober 27, 2017) 58