Writing Maintainable Automated Acceptance Tests.

Writing Maintainable Automated Acceptance Tests. 28

Posted by Uncle Bob Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:54:42 GMT

Dale Emery recently wrote a lovely article that has the same name as this blog. This article is really quite good. It makes the point that writing acceptance tests is writing software; and so the same principles of cohesion, coupling, DRY, etc. apply.

The only problem I had with Dale’s article, is that he used the wrong tool to demonstrate his principles. So I’ve created a video to show you how to apply Dale’s principles using FitNesse. (See below)

I’ve included three different sources for the video. One of them ought to work for you. The higest resolution video is the quicktime/screencast version; but some people can’t use it. So choose your poison.

Viddler

link

Vimeo

link

Writing Maintainable Automated Acceptance Tests from unclebob on Vimeo.

screencast.com

(QuickTime) link

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Pekka Klärck about 3 hours later:

Good video based on an awesome article. But why is Robot Framework “wrong” tool for this kind of testing? It even seems to me that FitNesse scenario tables are copied from RF user keyword concept.
Wes Williams about 8 hours later:

nice video Uncle Bob. I like the way you cleaned up the examples Dale had. I think it will also allow further enhancements. You could even enhance this to show what happens when the next requirement comes. (which is more difficult than the name change requirement) the next requirement related to this could be the ability to change a password and this would easily reuse the scenarios but with the application in a different state. both tests should indicate the starting state and then reuse the password verification.
Andras Hatvani about 13 hours later:

The presentation was entertaining, interesting and useful, too. In my opinion it should be part of the http://fitnesse.org/FrontPage.VideoTutorials as writing maintainable tests is really essential to a successful FitNesse implementation. However, I do not agree that the Robot framework would be a “wrong” one. It depends on both, people and requirements, whether this or that tool/framework fits a project.
Brian Ramsay about 16 hours later:

I’m pretty sure that the “wrong tool” statement was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
Rakesh 4 days later:

I’m sorry but if you really want to remove the setup code from your test then try Concordion (http://www.concordion.org/).

It uses html so all the setup code can go into the html code that isn’t displayed.

We’ve been using it for 2+ years and think its the bee’s knees.

In fact the author wrote it because he didn’t like Fit/Fitness.

R
RyanT 27 days later:

Nice video. Really helps with understanding the concept of automated acceptance tests – also nice usage of FitNesse, something I am not familiar with.
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You even can improve this to show what happens when demand is below. (Which is more difficult than the requirement of a name change), the following requirements related to what might be possible to change the password and easily reuse scenarios, but with the application in a different state. Both tests should indicate the starting position, then re-use your password for verification.
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