-
WHAT ARE NEGATIVE UNIT TEST, AND SHOULD I BOTHER WITH THEM?
I don’t thing anybody has missed the fact that unit tests increase the quality of the code. But then someone starts talking about negative unit tests. What the heck is that? A unit test verifies that the functionality in the code works as expected, but don’t forget the other side of the coin. Errors. And negative tests verify that your code doesn’t get stumped when an error occurs. Here are a few things that helps you write them. Stable code doesn’t break because of errors Code, like life, never works out the way you intended. There is always a lot of stuff happening outside of our control. For software, we…
-
WHEN IS THE USER STORY “MAKE IT BETTER” FINISHED?
We’ve all been told to do the system safer, better looking, faster, or any other vague requirements. So we do what we think solves the problem. But it wasn’t really what the stakeholder wanted. Can we avoid this by quantifying what better means, by putting numbers on it and measure when we are done? The users probably don’t know what they want. Don’t be satisfied with that. Ask questions and clarify the intent. Then make it measurable so you know when you are finished. And yes, you can quantify everything. Why are requirements vague? We don’t know when we arrive if we don’t know where we’re going. A vague requirement…
-
WHO IS THIS “USER” THAT SCRUM KEEPS TALKING ABOUT?
When you see an example of a user story it always stars with: “As a USER…” But what hides behind this “user”? Who is s/he? Or what? And does it actually give me any value to start every story with a user? The “user” is way to generic. Instead, you should be specific. Who, or what, makes the request? By identifying the stakeholders up front, you stand a much higher chance of making a system that actually works. So, what is a stakeholder, then? The problem with Scrum, according to Tom Gilb A co-worker woke my interest in what Tom Gilb has to say, a while ago. We were sitting…