"Unit Testing Legacy Code"

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.

“Crystal Clear – A Human Powered Methodology for Small Teams” and “Testing Web Apps with Ruby-based Tools”

Kevin Hykin, Burke Porter Machinery (part 1) & Michael Swieton, Atomic Object

When: October 26th, 2004, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

"Crystal Clear – A Human Powered Methodology for Small Teams"

Kevin Hykin, from Burke Porter Machinery, will present Dr. Alistar Cockburn’s human-powered methodology for small teams called Crystal Clear. Dr. Cockburn developed the methodology over a 10 year period after asking the questions: “What have other successful project teams done?” and “What practices do they use?” The four points that will be discussed are as follows:

• The Seven Principles (applied)
• Strategies & Techniques (in practice)
• The process (explored)
• Common mistakes (misunderstood)
• Testing web applications with Ruby-based tools [Michael Swieton]

Michael Swieton from Atomic Object will discuss his experience with the WTR project (Web Testing in Ruby) using IEC (Internet Explorer COM) and some parts of Scripting 101, an IEC modification. He will also demo the use of IEC on one of his current projects.

Driving a browser from a dynamic language like Ruby for testing web applications offers some very nice advantages over other open source and even the commercial web app testing tools available. Serious plans are in place to make WTR a part of the leading solution for testing browser-based business applications.

The WATIR homepage is at cLabs.

WATIR is only available in CVS from Rubyforge.

Atomic Object is hosting the event. They are located at 941 Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids.

“Implications of Delivering Software Early and Often” and “Test Driven Development: Demonstration and Discussion”

Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson

When: September 28th, 2004, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Where: Priority Health – 1239 East Beltline

Ron Jeffries, prolific author, industry leader and practitioner in the XP movement, will be our guest speaker at the September XP West Michigan meeting. This is one meeting you won’t want to miss.

Ron Jeffries is one of the earliest XP pioneers. He was the on-site coach for the original XP project at Chrysler in 1998 and has been involved in XP ever since. Now an independent consultant, he has presented numerous talks and published several papers on the topic. He and his teams have built operating systems, compilers, relational database systems, and a wide range of applications (although he wonders why he didn’t get any of the money for such efforts).

In addition to his consulting work, Ron Jeffries is author or co-author of several articles and books including Extreme Programming Installed and his most recent book, Extreme Programming Adventures in C# (DV-Microsoft Professional). Ron is editor of the website XProgramming.com and is the most prolific on-line author by far in Extreme Programming and related topics.

Priority Health is hosting the event. They are located at 1239 East Beltline in Grand Rapids. The meeting will be held in the All Staff area on the 3rd floor of Building 1239.

Priority Health occupies two buildings. Building 1239 is located on the back part of the property, furthest away from East Beltline. Use the entrance (glass doors) located at the back of building 1239.

"Better Living through Extreme Programming"

Carl Erickson, Atomic Object

When: April 27th, 2004, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Where: Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

If you want to know what Extreme Programming is all about, don’t miss the XP West Michigan April meeting. Dr. Carl Erickson, President of Atomic Object, will present “Better Living through Extreme Programming,” which provides an overview of the XP process and zeroes in on a few key practices.

Topics covered include:

• XP as a win-win for management, customers, and the development team
• XP versus traditional development methods
• Why and when XP works
• The twelve practices of XP
• Details about selected practices
• Real examples of Atomic Object’s experience with XP
• Resources for obtaining more information

Dr. Erickson has given this presentation at numerous businesses and received rave reviews. Find out what the XP buzz is all about and see for yourself how using an agile software development process such as XP can give your company a competitive edge.

The meeting will be held at Atomic Object, 941 Wealthy Street SE.

In order to assure enough seating for everyone, it is very important that you register for this event. Please send an e-mail to coordinator@xpwestmichigan.org if you plan to attend.

"QA Tester Role" and "Unit Testing PHP"

Bo Roop, X-Rite (part 1) & Atomic Object Personnel (part 2)

When: March 23rd, 2004, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Where: X-Rite Cafeteria – 3100 44th Street, SW, Grandville

Bo Roop, Software QA Engineer at X-Rite, will describe the role of a QA tester in an XP team. Bo’s team at X-Rite has been using XP practices for several years.

Bo will review the traditional approach to testing, then discuss how this approach contrasts with the QA tester’s role on an XP team. His current responsibilities include manual testing, automated testing, requirements gathering, graphic layout and design, GUI design, coordination with outsourcing contractors, and being a testing mentor.

The second half of the evening will focus on the technical challenge of unit testing PHP, the very popular open source web scripting language. Atomic Object will present some of their work in this area and demonstrate PHP unit tests.

The meeting will be held in the X-Rite cafeteria. X-Rite is located at 3100 44th Street, SW, Grandville, just east of the Rivertown Crossings mall. Entry for the meeting will be via the front door.

We appreciate RSVPs to coordinator@xpwestmichigan.org for snack estimation and name tags.

"The Planning Game: Living by the Big Board"

Dave Limbaugh

When: February 24th, 2004, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Where: Priority Health – Building 1239

The February user group meeting is being led by Dave Limbaugh, an XP enthusiast from the east side of Michigan. Dave will continue the discussion of an XP practice called “The Planning Game,” which was introduced by Carl Erickson at our last meeting from a contractor’s perspective. Bringing his many years of experience in practicing XP in the corporate environment—most recently at the University of Michigan Health Systems-Dave will continue the planning game discussion.

The format of the meeting is sure to be a lively one. It will run from 6 pm until 8 pm with a “half-time” break for networking and snacks. The agenda includes:

• Photos from the Interface Java Factory XP adventure
• Core Presentation: “The Planning Game: Living by the Big Board”
• Sample planning game exercise; We’ll break up into groups and play customer/developer/coach roles
• Open discussion of XP

To tie up the meeting, Atomic Object personnel will present a brief overview of XP resources and will also provide an update on the XP West Michigan Steering Committee Meeting.

If you’d like to attend the February XP West Michigan user group meeting, please send e-mail to coordinator@xpwestmichigan.org to register. You will not receive a response back, but we will have a name tag and enough food for everyone that registers.

Priority Health is hosting the event and has graciously offered to provide the beverages and snacks. They are located at 1239 East Beltline in Grand Rapids. The meeting will be held in the All Staff area on the 3rd floor ofBuilding 1239.

Priority Health occupies two buildings. Building 1239 is located on the back part of the property, furthest away from East Beltline. Use the entrance (glass doors) located at the back of building 1239. Julie Gillette from Priority Health will greet you at the door.

"The Planning Game and Open Source Test Tool"

Carl Erickson, Atomic Object

When: February 3rd, 2004, at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Where: Siemens Dematic

The January meeting is being rescheduled to February 3 due to poor weather conditions on the original date. The meeting offers a slight change in format in an effort to satisfy individuals new to XP as well as advanced XP users. Please feel free to attend the portions of the meeting most important to you.

The first portion of the meeting is for individuals new to XP or for those who would like a refresher. In this segement, Carl Erickson, Atomic Object’s President, provides a brief overview of XP and then focuses on one of the Extreme Programming best practices known as “The Planning Game”. The XP planning process allows the XP “customer” to define the business value of desired features, and uses cost estimates provided by the programmers, to choose what needs to be done and what needs to be deferred. The effect of XP’s planning process is that it is easy for management to steer the project to success according to scope, priority, composition of releases, and release dates.

The second portion of the meeting is an advanced topic on open source testing tools. Carl Erickson will have just returned from the [Austin Workshop on Test Automation|http://www.pettichord.com/awta5.html] and will provide a summary of the new and exciting things he learned there.

The specific agenda is as follows:

• 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm – XP Practice: The Planning Game
• 6:45 pm – 7:15 pm – Open Networking
• 7:15 pm – 8:00 pm – Open Source Testing tools

Please register by e-mailing: coordinator@xpwestmichigan.org

The meeting will be held at the Siemens Dematic Conference Center. This is the building on their North Campus, just down the hill from the School House.

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. The conference center is the first building on your left, on the left side of the roof that connects two buildings.

Parking is available directly in front of the building. If that lot is full, you can make an immediate right turn when entering the drive and park on the lower parking level.