50+ pairs of eyes stared back at me.
No slides (they weren’t ready yet), so no safety net - just me standing in front of a room full of students.
Unlike a conference crowd who actively picks your talk (and so I assume actually wants to be there), these students didn't have a choice about spending their morning listening to me talk about testing.
So, it was even more important to make it worth their time.
This wasn't my first time at De Haagse Hogeschool. For the past few years, I've been fortunate to be part of Delta-N's program, sharing real-world experience with the next generation of developers.
Usually, I talk about pair programming - sharing with students how working together makes them stronger developers is always a highlight of my year.
But this year was different. I wanted something new, and as I was writing a talk about it, I wanted to challenge these students to think differently about testing.
Not just about Test-Driven Development, (or as most people know and do it: "writing tests when you don't know what code you want to write"), but about:
- What happens before we write that first test.
- Getting out of our developer bubble and talking to actual users.
- Getting into the conversation with testers and business stakeholders earlier, when your insights can really make a difference.
I don't know how many I reached, but I saw enough thoughtful eyes, nodding heads, and quizzical looks as they thought it through for themselves to make it all worth it!
Software development is about much more than just implementing code; moving into that space where you can think about the problems that you are solving is a whole lot more fun.
I don't want to make this post too long, so over the next few weeks, I'll be diving deeper into the key ideas from this lecture:
- Getting into the flow earlier
- Making sure that you understand the why of what we are doing
- How to avoid that "How can I write tests when I haven't written any code?"
- How to make sure that those tests you write don't come back to bite you in the future!
Stay tuned - this is a wonderful rabbit hole to jump down!
Top comments (0)