Latest Posts - Page 93 of 192

March 6, 2020February 27, 2020 Special Topics

Schedule Adjustments – When To Change Course

We spend a lot of time talking about planning and setting schedules. This activity is a necessary process. However, we should learn from our past and adapt our schedule when possible. There is no sense in scheduling ourselves into an unworkable schedule. Sometimes a few schedule adjustments make the difference between glorious success and burnout. All Plans Go Out The Window In Reality There is a quote that says plans are worthless, but planning invaluable. This simple truth is important for us to take to heart. We can plan all day long to achieve an impressive number of goals. However, planning and doing are not the same. Life happens, and that can throw off even the best plans. We also... Read more

March 5, 2020February 20, 2020 Integrate Testing Into Your Development Flow Testing

Reporting In TestNG: How To Write Custom Loggers And Reporters

Welcome to the next episode in our new series “Integrating testing into your development flow”. Today we are going to be looking at “Reporting In TestNG: How To Write Custom Loggers And Reporters”. In the last two presentations on TestNG, we talked about what TestNG is and have given a thorough walkthrough of where to get the tools, setting up your environment, the different annotations you can use, how to execute your procedures and tests. Then we looked at the different types of suite testing you can do. Such as, how to ignore tests, group testing, exception testing, dependency testing, parameterized testing, and running JUnit tests in TestNG. So far we have covered only the basics of reporting in TestNG.... Read more

March 2, 2020February 25, 2020 Special Topics

Best Practice Urban Legends – Not Quite the Best

Urban legends cover a broad range of topics and often have a feel of being correct, even when they are not. This phenomenon is not restricted to saying “Beetle Juice” three times. There are all sorts of urban legends that we run into, and they extend into the world of best practices. These examples feel like they are the right thing to do, but may even be the opposite. The Foolishness of Crowds Many of the problems with best practices devolving into urban legends territory seem to be rooted in groupthink. We do not always speak our minds, nor do we question enough. When we are worried about looking foolish, silence is often the path to take. However, this can... Read more

February 28, 2020February 23, 2020 Special Topics

The Cost of The Right Decision – Is It Worth It?

Software developers and designers are often asked for a recommendation to approach a solution. The implication is that we know the right decision. We often join in on this assumption and will debate or argue that our way is the best option. While there may be a “best approach” to our problems, it is worth digging deeper into the costs associated with the right decision. Arguing For The Right Decision The first hurdle to overcome in assessing cost is debating the options. When there is a clear-cut approach that is the best one, then we can often decide and move on. On the other hand, there are more often going to be a few solutions that are similar, and a... Read more

Exception Testing Dependency Testing Parameterized Testing Running JUnit Tests

February 27, 2020February 20, 2020 Integrate Testing Into Your Development Flow Testing

TestNG Testing Types: A Comprehensive Look Into How To Use Them

Welcome to the next episode in our new series “Integrating testing into your development flow”. Today we are going to be looking at “TestNG Testing Types: A Comprehensive Look Into How To Use Them”. In our first few presentations, we covered how to build the documentation for a test strategy and test plan. These documents are useful to help the business clearly define the software requirements that both the developers and testers will use to test the software. Then, we went into how unit tests fit into the Software Test Life Cycle and looked at some examples. Previously, we walked through how to get started with TestNG and create some test cases. Today we are going to move into the... Read more

February 26, 2020February 20, 2020 Software Architecture From Scratch

Software Architecture Deliverables – Provide The Story

It is time to end another season. At this point, we need to revisit the idea of software architecture deliverables. In particular, we should spend some time thinking about how we communicate our architecture. Multiple Audiences for Software Architecture Deliverables First and foremost, there are a couple of levels of audiences that your deliverables will need to address. This situation is always one of the most challenging to handle correctly. Fortunately, we have other types of documents to learn from. We can look to similar deliverables like an RFP (or response to an RFP) for a structure and approach that makes sense. A Tiered Response Our prior discussions have covered this sort of “tiered response” or communication. We can craft... Read more