Tea-Driven Development

A while back, I asked the Cucumber team for the ability to call in the steps of one scenario from another.

The canonical example of this is the ‘log in’ scenario:

Scenario: User logs in
  Given there is a User whose username is "matt"
  And I follow "log in"
  And I enter "matt" in "username"
  And I enter the User's password in "password"
  And I press "Log In"
  Then I should be logged in
  And I should see the text "Hello matt"

Phew. Now obviously I don’t want all this noise in the scenario every time I specify behaviour that requires a logged in user. I want to write something like this:

Scenario: User views their dashboard
  Given I am logged in
  And I follow the "dashboard" link
  Then I should see "This is your dashboard"

Thanks to the fabulous creativity of the Cucumber community, this is now possible. It’s also highly recommended, as it’s a great way to help you keep your step files tidy and DRY of excess duplication.

Given /I am logged in/ do
  Given "there is a User"
  Given "I follow \"log in\""
  Given "I enter \"#{User.first.username}\" in \"username\""
  Given "I enter \"#{User.first.password}\" in \"password\""
  Given "I press \"Log In\""
end

I’m doing this more and more now - writing simple ‘building block’ steps and assembling them to make steps that read nicely and make sense to the stakeholders.

Pair programming brings a great many benefits to a team that’s truly mastered it.

Those of us who are lucky enough to have experienced working on a really effective XP team know about that almost magical thing that starts to happen when the barriers between different members of the team break down, egos and code ownership are cast aside, and the team starts to evolve the codebase as one, mighty, coding machine. It’s truly a joy to be a part of, or even just to watch.

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A common sloppy mistake I see programmers making is to forget to declare a method as private when it’s only being used inside a class. This seems to happen more in Ruby, or maybe it just bothers me more because we don’t have interfaces. Rails ActiveRecord validation callbacks are a classic example where people often forget to do this.

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I going to be speaking (with my good friend Rob Bowley) at the forthcoming XP Day conference in London, 11th & 12th December 2008. Which means that I am now officially extreme. Dude.

Come to my talk if you want to hear my experiences of breaking a team out of the Scrum mould and doing some exciting stuff with value stream maps, Kanban boards and other techniques from the school of Lean Thinking. Come along if you want to hear about a world without task cards, exhausting planning days, and maybe even a world without estimates. Sorry Jason, but there may be some mention of coloured bits of card.

I’m actually one of only a few people with a scheduled talk, as the organisers have decided to use an open-space format this year. Which means you also have a chance to get up on stage and lead some discussion. After my last experience with an open space, I’d say it’s well worth doing your homework and really thinking about what you’d like to discuss at the conference beforehand so that you get the most out of it.

If you’re interested in building software as well as you can, XP Day is a great place to meet like-minded people, share experiences and develop ideas. It’s only small, so register soon!

Let me know in the comments if you’re coming, and what you’d like to talk about when you get there.