Exploration Through Example

Example-driven development, Agile testing, context-driven testing, Agile programming, Ruby, and other things of interest to Brian Marick

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Tue, 18 Apr 2006

Example-based specifications workshop

Bill Wake and I will be hosting a workshop at Agile2006. Here's the blurb:

Some tests are thinly-disguised walkthroughs of a user interface. Other tests are so voluminous that you suspect that even their author didn't read them. But some tests seem designed to facilitate conversations about the key objects and processes in a domain.

How can we foster the latter style, to create specifications useful to both machines and people, including end users, product owners/customers/product directors, testers, and programmers?

We're going to try to gear this toward advanced practitioners, while recognizing there will probably be a majority of novices in the room. What we'll do first is divide into groups, each with a Customer (preferably someone who's held that role on a real project). That Customer will repeatedly describe a story, and the team will turn it into tests. After that, we'll reconvene, discuss, identify 2-4 areas of interest, break into smaller discussions, address them, and produce a poster summary for each.

Because of the italicized bit above, I'd like you to encourage all your Real Customers to come to the conference. Even if they don't come to our workshop, this conference needs to be a place where Customers can learn from each other.

Thanks.

## Posted at 09:31 in category /conferences [permalink] [top]