Sometimes, we explore a system using vast numbers of tiny tests, identifying potential problems by recognising trends and oddities in the results.
In this workshop, you'll design bulk tests, and build them with the tools you already own. Applying your tests to specially-build software exercises, you'll map some of your measurements to pictures that reveal overall system behaviours. When you've seen trends and picked out the oddities, you'll return to your collection of bulk tests to redesign and dig into surprises.
James Lyndsay will guide you through the exercises. He'll give you ideas on ways you can design your tests to span ranges, break boundaries and iterate towards trouble. He'll show you ways you can use easy-access tools to visualise your test results, and give you techniques to help you analyse your pictures. On the way, he'll talk about triggering, tools and the abuse and re-use of unit tests.
We'll work in groups. You'll need to bring or share a laptop with a flash-capable browser, a text editor and a spreadsheet. Join this half-day workshop to get elbow-deep in hands-on testing.
Three things to take away - Experience designing, building, aiming and adjusting bulk tests - Try out tools and approaches to visually analyse thousands of results - Understand ways that this approach can be used (and ways it can be useless or troublesome).
