Although agile developers write tests as part of their work, they frequently overlook opportunities to benefit from the unique skills and perspective that testers bring to the team. Testers are all too often treated as a safety net for the developers, rather than being given the chance to help shape the software. This workshop will familiarize testers with test-driven development so they can work more closely with the developers on their teams and contribute earlier in the development process. We will begin by exploring the differences between code-first and TDD approaches, using an...
Pat Maddox
8th Light
Pat Maddox developed one of the first revenue-generating Ruby on Rails websites in the world—a poker training tool—and has been helping teams to deliver quality software ever since. After helping numerous media startups create scalable Rails applications, he worked with Pivotal’s team to train others in their strong XP culture. As an early contributor to RSpec, the popular behavior-driven development framework for Ruby projects, Pat served on its core development team. He has been invited around the world to give conference talks, training sessions, and coaching expertise on a wide variety of domains and technologies, with his main focus areas being BDD, object-oriented design, and agile collaboration. Pat also helps others make better software by being an active member of various local user groups, serving as a mentor for outreach organizations, and facilitating regular code retreats.