Aikido, Controller Tests, and LinkedIn

@mdenomy

Thursday, January 16, 14

Aikido,Controller Tests,

and LinkedIn

Michael DenomyLaunch AcademyJanuary 16, 2014


Aikido,Controller Tests,

and LinkedIn3 things that seemingly

have nothing to do with one another

Michael DenomyLaunch AcademyJanuary 16, 2014


What’s This All About• Get you thinking about life after

Launch Academy


What’s This All About• Get you thinking about life after

Launch Academy

ABGB

lwayseettingetter


Trivia Question

Who is this, and why should you care?


Alistair Cockburn• One of the Agile Manifesto authors- http://agilemanifesto.org/

• Introduced concept of Shu-Ha-Ri to software development- Term from Aikido about 3 stages of learning


http://agilemanifesto.org/

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Shu-Ha-Ri

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/cockburn-bury-not-praise-agile

Shu-Ha-Ri comes up at ~31:40, but entire talk worthwhile.




What Does This Mean For You

• You are in the Shu phase- Don’t cherry pick what you think you should do- Learn a technique from your masters

• Someday you will leave these walls- Evaluate different techniques- Be open to other ways- This is Ha, incorporate different techniques

• Someday, you may get to Ri


A Practical Example•When I learned Rails....

• Started with Hartl Tutorial- When I did it there were Controller tests like

these


RSpec Docs Reinforced That

https://www.relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/docs/controller-specs




That Was Me in Shu Phase• I’d learned one way of doing it

• It worked for me

• Provided a safety net“Test-driven development is a way of managing fear during programming. I don't mean fear in a bad way-but fear in the legitimate, this-is-a-hard-problem-and-I-can't-see-the-end-from-the-beginning sense.” Kent Beck - Test Driven Development By Example


Then A Few Things Happened

A perfect Shu response

A Shu comment

I reviewed some code for a Launcher’s final project


And Another Thing


Dan Calls Shenanigans!


Time for some Ha Thinking

• Polled some people in the industry

• Thought about my own practices

•Made some changes- Take more of an outside-in approach- Start with a feature test- Explore data and models without being bound

to the database/migrations- Add in model tests and migrations- Mix of controller and feature tests for edge

cases


Controller Tests I Don’t Write

• Testing the framework- e.g. index action rendering index template

• Testing template via controller test

• Assignments


Controller Tests I Do Write

•Model/association creation on posts

• Redirects on invalid data/conditions

• Flash messages


Controller Tests I Do Write

• External APIs- in conjunction with stubs


Summary• There is value in controller tests

• Starting with feature tests help me keep perspective and explore

• Risk vs Reward- Every line of code costs $- Every line of code is a potential liability

• Always be open to change


Bonus Tracks

Deleted Scenes

Alternate Endings

Interview with the director

Personalized LinkedIn Invites


Bonus Tracks

Personalized LinkedIn Invites


140 Characters Can’t Describe My Sadness


Good Networking Etiquette

• Send follow-up and thank you emails- Stand out from the crowd

• Get out there and talk to people- Tell them what you have done, not what

you want to do

• Personalize your LinkedIn invites


@mdenomy


Aikido, Controller Tests, and LinkedIn

Technology

Transcript of Aikido, Controller Tests, and LinkedIn