Seb Rose and Bad test, good test plus Andy Burgin with a DevOps 101

On an evening with heavy sleet showers, Agile Yorkshire attendees could have been forgiven for heading to the warmth of their homes. It was, however, fantastic to see yet another packed house. We could have filled the room twice over as for the first time, we saw more names added to the waiting list than places available. This month's first speaker was Andy Burgin, the founder of the Leeds Devops group, speaking on that very topic in the 30 minute slot. Andy was followed by Seb Rose who discussed what makes a unit test good or bad. Andy took the audience through the history of the devops movement while telling the group about 5 definitions of devops and discussing the problems devops attempts to resolve. It was demonstrated, that as with many development practices, the culture around devops is hugely important. Andy suggested that it is not a good idea to try jumping straight in with automation, but allow a culture to develop which can then be supported with technology. What makes a unit test good or bad? Seb Rose posed this question, even going as far as asking the entire room to ponder it in silence for a minute! In order to answer the question, Seb discussed why we even write unit tests in the first place. It was discussed that unit tests should be specifications of the code under test, the tests therefore need to read well and become documentation. Seb showed that tests should be repeatable, that they must be necessary; if a test has served it's purpose, and another test covers the same functionality, delete it. The group were shown a number of design patterns which can help to keep tests maintainable and readable.  The evening ended with the monthly prize draw and drinks in the Midnight Bell. Thanks to all our volunteer team who make the event happen and finally thanks to main sponsors Callcredit and NewRedo and to our prize sponsors O'Reilly, JetBRAINS, Manning, Wrox and PluralSight. See you next month, Stew Able.