Cucumber + Capybara = Web Testing Delight

Following on from Chris’ screencast showing the simplest Cucumber project ever, I recorded a screencast showing the simplest Cucumber web testing project ever. In just five minutes, I’ll show you how to use Capybara to drive a simple Google web search from a Cucumber scenario. If you’re looking to get started using Cucumber to test …

Speaking at Lean Agile Scotland 2012

The Lean Agile Scotland conference is shaping up to be a really great event. I’ll be speaking about why agile fails, drawing on my experience coaching numerous software teams and organisations. I’ll highlighting the reasons why so many companies fail to reap the benefits enjoyed by the early adopters of agile and give you some …

The Joy of Craftsmanship

I identify a great deal with the label of “Craftsman”, but some of the rhetoric around the current “Software Craftsmanship” movement bothers me. Why? A little lightbulb went on recently as I read “Let my People Go Surfing”, by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia. Patagonia was founded by a group …

The Importance of Being Idle

It says over there on the left that I like to be idle, but I don’t often take the time to write about it. I’m not going to write much now, really, but here’s a thought for you: An idle mind is a questioning, sceptical mind. Hence it is a mind not too bound up …

MySQL Ruby Gem Frustration with OS X

A few minutes ago I posted about the time I’d wasted since inadvertently upgrading my ruby version. My last hurdle was to install the mysql ruby gem, which is never easy on OS X, as I learned the first time around a few days ago. However this time, I was stumped. The gem seemed to …