Other hanselminutes episodes on testing:
- #112 The Past, Present and Future of .NET Unit Testing Frameworks - listened a while back, remember being slightly underwhelmed, but still worth a listen
- #103 Quetzal Bradley on Testing after Unit Tests - extremely interesting, giving deep insight into how to think about the purpose of coverage metrics etc.
- #146 Test Driven Development is Design - The Last Word on TDD (with Scott Bellware) - lives up to its name in that it slams home a lot of core concepts that you "always knew anyway". IIRC the podcast gives a favourable mention to the Newkirk/Vorontsov book - which I wouldnt particularly second (it's a long time since I read it -- I might just not have been ready to absorb its messages)
Other podcasts:
- Herding Code Episode 42: Scott Bellware on BDD and Lean Development - recorded after Hanselminutes #146. Again, very good discussion that helps to cement ideas around "classic tests" vs BDD vs Context Specification and various such other attempts at classifications...
- J.B. Rainsberger: "Integration Tests Are A Scam" is a recording of a presentation covering integration vs unit tests.
Other questions like this:
- Good QA / Testing Podcast, which among others lists the meta podcast http://testingpodcast.com/
Blog posts:
- It’s Not TDD, It’s Design By Example - Brad Wilson, similar in vein to HC #42, attempting to get across why you're writing the tests.
I know you didn't ask for books but... Can I also mention that Beck's TDD book is a must read, even though it may seem like a dated beginner book on first flick through (and Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael C. Feathers of course is the bible). Also, I'd append Martin(& Martin)'s Agile Principles, Patterns & Techniques as really helping in this regard. In this space (concise/distilled info on testing) also is the excellent Foundations of programming ebook. Goob books on testing I've read are The Art of Unit Testing and xUnit Test Patterns. The latter is an important antidote to the first as it is much more measured than Roy's book is very opinionated and offers a lot of unqualified 'facts' without properly going through the various options. Definitely recommend reading both books though. AOUT is very readable and gets you thinking, though it chooses specific [debatable] technologies; xUTP is in depth and neutral and really helps solidify your understanding. I read Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit afterwards. It's good and balanced though slightly dated (it mentions RhinoMocks as a sidebar and doesnt mention Moq) - even if nothing is actually incorrect. An updated version of it would be a hands-down recommendation.
More recently I've re-read the Feathers book, which is timeless to a degree and covers important ground. However it's a more 'how, for 50 different wheres' in nature. It's definitely a must read though.
Most recently, I'm reading the excellent Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce. I can't recommend it highly enough - it really ties everything together from big to small in terms of where TDD fits, and various levels of testing within a software architecture. While I'm throwing the kitchen sink in, Evans's DDD book is important too in terms of seeing the value of building things incrementally with maniacal refactoring in order to end up in a better place.
