Section 14.5. Summary


14.5. Summary

We have seen how to handle various issues that arise in developing Fit tests for business processes. One test was split into two independent tests. The group collected SetUp tables together to be used by several tests. We found a reasonable way of keeping track of the current client in our tests without excessive duplication.

The tests are still incomplete. We develop them further in the next chapter to take account of the issues that have been ignored initially, listed in Section 14.2.

By the end of this session, the group was feeling positive and had enjoyed the experience. Someone mentioned that it was nice to be able to ignore a lot of the details of the underlying system when writing the tests. However, Emily was a little bothered about the implications for the fixtures and RentEz, as the tests were rather different in structure from the application itself.

We have seen, again, how tables evolve as we come to grips with the business rules and associated shape and vocabulary of tables. The focus of table design has been on such business rules.

  • The tests aim to communicate the business rules as clearly as possible, with a focus on the essential, ignoring incidental details of the implementation.

  • This process often helps everyone's understanding of the essentials of the business rules.

  • Tables filling the roles of setup, action, and check occur in most business process tests, in that order.

The vocabulary that we use in tests usually has to evolve through a dialogue between the businesspeople and the developers, making sure that the essence of what needs to be said can be expressed clearly. Instead of statements in English, we end up with statements that are in tables and whose precise meanings are shared. These meanings need to be incorporated by the programmers into the fixtures. We have more to say about the evolution of tables in Chapter 18.

Given the effort involved in getting the vocabulary right, it makes sense to start new developments with the test tables first and allow the system to follow. We discuss driving new developments with tables in Chapter 17.



    Fit for Developing Software. Framework for Integrated Tests
    Fit for Developing Software: Framework for Integrated Tests
    ISBN: 0321269349
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 331

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