Recording Venue: Skype
Guest(s): Johannes Link & Lasse Koskela
Host(s): Markus
In this episode Johannes Link interviews Lasse Koskela – the author of “Test-Driven” – about test-driven development (TDD). We cover the basics, the rationale behind it and the challenges you face when doing it in more difficult environments.
SE Radio 155: Johannes Link & Lasse Koskela on TDD
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I turned off the podcast when Mr. Koskela started talking about manual UI testing in the context of TDD. That is a completely separate testing layer. Mr. Link tried to lead him to discuss the basics of TDD (such as Red-Green-Refactor), but he seemed oblivious. It’s hard to believe that Mr. Koskela wrote a book on the subject.
Please consider revisiting this subject. Interview an actual expert: Kent Beck, Andrew Hunt, David Astels, James Newkirk, Roy Osherove, etc. Target the initial podcast towards beginners.
You might consider interviewing Johannes Link. He apparently has a good understanding of TDD.
Regards
Erich Pawlik
I’m a Java Developer, and have read about 3/4 the way through Koskela’s “Test-Driven” book. In my opinion, the book is much, much, much better than this interview.
I listened to this interview all the way through to the end, and the only reason I listened to the whole thing is that I was on the bus for an hour with nothing else to read or listen to. Given how much I like his book, I was looking forward to the interview. I was very disappointed. Both interviewer and interviewee were new to doing interviews, and it shows. Koskela missed opportunities to bring up important concepts from Test-Driven, and I felt he couldn’t explain himself very well. Audio quality is poor. I’ll never again get on the bus without at least two options of what to read or listen to!
One the other hand, Koskela’s book is one of those rare books that will probably fundamentally change the way I program for the rest of my life. It is enjoyable to read–good balance of technical (loaded with concrete Java code examples) and engaging (not too “dry,” well organized, conversational, good pace). I highly recommend it to any Java developer who wants to learn about TDD, or even if you know about TDD, to acquire some new tricks in your TDD arsenal.
–Scott
If you doubt the mans expertise but want to learn, do or get others excited about TDD, please give the guy a chance read at least the first two chapters of Lasse’s book.
It convinced me of the necessity of doing TDD in my work and helped me convince others. Quite excellent stuff…
-Samuli