The Myth of Learning Compression 12
There is an odd idea that learning is compressible, that any training course of any length can be squeezed into a very small time box and delivered to any large number of people without significant loss.
As an educator and as a guy who has a pretty big learning load at any time, I know that this is a myth. I can cover any topic much better if I am working with a handful of individuals over the course of a week or two. If you double the number of attendees, then the interactivity is highly degraded, and discussions become time sinks. If you half the time, then interactivity is likewise degraded, and material that might have been covered must be skipped or skimmed.
I have a joke with my coworkers that the ideal environment for some large corporations would be a three-train roller coaster. The participants would buy a ticket, climb on board, sail past the materials at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour, and would collect their certificate at the other end. As one train is unloading, another is loading, and another is in progress so that we could cover many hundreds or thousands of students per day. Of course, they would learn next to nothing and would not really participate at all.
But I respect my corporate customers, including the fact that they have much to do, and cannot easily afford a one-week work-stop for each dozen team members, all with consultant/trainer fees. Some large organizations would have us on-site for years in a row before all their developers would be trained in any technology. It’s just not reasonable, and they push for a more feasible schedule.
It’s a rock and a hard place, and people on both sides understand that it is so.
The good news is that compressibility is not a total myth. There are techniques and tools that can make the training more effective, so that less time is necessary in class. There is the idea of a jump-start, where a topic is introduced and discussed in a short time and students are given materials on which they can continue via self-training. The compressibility myth drives us to more dense and useful presentation. It is a valuable spur.
It also has the advantage of the time box. If you have only three days to teach someone how to TDD, you have to choose the three most important days-worth of material to teach. This kind of prioritization is the same thing that we demand of our product owners in a scrum, and is perfectly fair and reasonable.
Even though compressibility is a myth, it is a useful myth.
The only mythological part of the compression myth is the idea that it is lossless. It is lossy compression. But as is the case with audio and visual compression, compressed learning can be “good enough.” If that’s what we’re after, it’s all good.
What would be the best way to learn TDD through self-study? Any books and/or web sites that you would recommend?
I’ve read a bit about TDD/BDD and used it in a short Java project (2 weeks). I would like to learn more and become better at TDD. Right now I would like to learn to improve the quality of my test cases – make them more readable and effective. I still tend to think too much of the implementation details when writing the tests and have a near 1:1 ratio between implemantation and test classes (sometimes also methods).
The answer is always the same, i fear. It is * Read some about TDD * Do TDD at work * Pair with people who do it better than you do. * Read other people’s tests. Improve them if you can.
Unsurprisingly, wikipedia is a pretty good jumping-off point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_driven_development It has a pointer to one of my favorite articles: http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.TheThreeRulesOfTdd
Most of TDD is either learning how to use the framework, how to test for a particular feature, or how to refactor. In the latter case, Martin Fowler’s /Refactoring/ book is handy. The rest, as you’ve seen, is about making the tests effective and readable.
There is a website for this: http://www.testdriven.com/ I have to admit that I don’t go there very often, but perhaps I should.
I can easily recommend our articles at https://objectmentor.com/resources/publishedArticles.html especially those with Test Driven Development in their names.
I haven’t read as many TDD books as many of my contemporaries, but I like Dave Astels’ book /Test Driven Development/, and have heard only good things about Jeff Langr’s /Agile Java/, Kent Beck’s /Test Driven Development: By Example/ and JB Rainsberger’s /JUnit Recipes/.
If you can, find the articles by David Chelimsky on rspec. That is a very interesting framework that makes tests almost English-like, and you can learn from that (even in Java).
Oh, I guess I would be remiss unless I recommended taking an Object Mentor TDD course.
:-)
Thanks for your tips!
Most of TDD is either learning how to use the framework, how to test for a particular feature, or how to refactor. In the latter case, Martin Fowler’s /Refactoring/ book is handy.
http://blog.objectmentor.com/articles/2007/06/11/collateral-effort-revisited#comments
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Well. Though I am not a good application developer. And I need do more hard work to improve myself. When I come to here. I know that I have come to the right place to learn something I need. Thanks for your good advice. And I will do the practice as possible as I can. Thanks.