SoftwareGR

Kevin Bradtke and Tom Kubit, Gene Codes Forensics

When: November 22nd, 2004, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Siemens Logistics and Assembly

XP’ers cringe when they have to work with existing code that never had unit tests developed. Yet this occurs far too often. Kevin Bradtke, from the mxpe (Michigan XP Enthusiasts) user group in Ann Arbor will present the first portion of the meeting and cover the basics of testing legacy code. Using anecdotes from his 15+ years in the industry, Mr. Bradtke will discuss strategies to employ when considering how to test, and provide insight into problems encountered.

Kevin is a Senior Software Engineer with experience in projects ranging from small application development to Enterprise Wide System development. His projects span numerous companies, including GM, Ford, EDS, and the U.S. Government. Kevin has been involved in XP since 1997. Over the last few years, his focus has been on adopting XP practices on existing teams. Kevin will share his wealth of experience in working with existing code bases and offer unique and interesting ways to create unit and acceptance tests for code that was not written for ease of testing.

The break and networking portion of the meeting will begin at 6:50 pm and run until 7:10 pm.

Demo Tom Kubit will join Kevin Bradtke in a pair programming demo for the second half of the meeting. Using Squeak Smalltalk, the duo will demonstrate how to refactor the code as needed to get tests in place. Their goal is to provide a sense of the process required to go through and test existing code.

Tom has been developing OO software for more than 15 years and has been involved with XP as a developer and coach for the past 7 years. He’s been on projects ranging in size from a single developer to about 200, with projects lasting anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. He is currently working at Gene Codes Forensics in Ann Arbor and is President of the mxpe user group. Both presentations were given to mxpe earlier this year and received some excellent reviews.

Siemens Logistics and Assembly is hosting the event. It will be held in the Schoolhouse, located on the corner of Michigan Ave. and Plymouth Rd. in Grand Rapids. Entry to the Siemens Schoolhouse building is off from Plymouth Road.

From the intersection of Michigan and Plymouth roads, go north on Plymouth (down the hill) and turn left into the first drive that you can, driving between two black iron gates. Drive straight ahead, turning left just before the fence and guardshack. Follow the road around the building you just passed and up the hill to the schoolhouse parking area.