Thoughts on Kent Beck's Podcast

Kent Beck seems to be a person that is pretty convinced that TDD is not only a programming paradigm, for him it is a whole new strategy on attacking problems that come up in life. Personally I have never developed any code basing solely tests as my guideline. And I think I don´t really feel like trying so not only because it is comfortable, but also because I would end up convinced that I do not know how to program. Even though, this podcast convinced me a little bit to start being more aware of the functionality of smaller segments of my code, perhaps not as extreme as making 16 pushes for a Fibonacci code, but to start building over solid ground. 

As Kent mentions, as long as there are no design mistakes if you program with this test driven mindset it is more unlikely to get this bug that after working on it uncovers a few thousand more. Something that I found fascinating during this podcast is the value that Kent gives to the programmer's motivation. Solving a bug and see a line full of greens seems is definitively much more of an incentive than being afraid to unbury bug after bug. As he mentions on of the things that programmers enjoy the most from programming is actually solving a problem. In my opinion there is nothing that makes me feel more happy at work than following a trace and solving a problem by yourself in your own code, a mixture of feelings comes up between self hate for making such silly mistakes and ironically feeling really smart for solving the problem. And yes, this feeling doesn't come up when I am convinced that most of my code is garbage and thousands of other bugs are coming up in queue after that. 

I believe some sort of TDD might actually suit my needs and help me improve as a programmer, however I am not willing to go to the extremes mentioned in the podcasts. Just like limbo I am willing to start up and go down somehow slowly. 

Week 1 Plan

Week 1 Plan

January 21, 2019

Credits to @rawpixel

https://unsplash.com/photos/mcLpPD36-2k

• Get familiar and a brief introduction to software testing.
• Read Chapter 1 of the Introduction to Software Testing Book.
• Define team roles.
• Figure out which project are we going to be working on this semester.
• Share Github credentials (Usernames).
• Set up Github Team Repository.
• Brief Review on how to use Github.
• Get to now each other, by sharing cellphone numbers and creating a WhatsApp group

What we managed to do:

• We have a good overall knowledge of what are going to be working on.
• We've managed to define team roles.
• A Github repository is up and all of our team members are connected. 
• We have a WhatsApp group.

My expectations for the course:

After several semesters, I have been convinced by my professors to actually adopt a testing mindset as something that any good programmer should be proficient on. Additionally I have just been hired for development, which means I am expected to code effectively and I believe this course is going to help me on my struggle to get my code bounced back by the company's testers as little as it is possible. If I understand the way testing works and which parts of my work they are going to set eye on, I will be able to make this my job easier for me in a shorter time. Additionally I do feel a little interested for the work of a tester. I'm looking forward to learn all of those methodologies and get as much experience as possible from this course.

How are we going to manage our project: