Henk Doornbos (Paylogic): Making large, untested code bases testable

Henk Doornbos (Paylogic) talks about making large, untested code bases testable, at the PyGrunn conference in Groningen, The Netherlands. Organized by Paylogic and Goldmund Wyldebeast & Wunderliebe.

Computer scientist, software engineer, architect, consultant, head architecture department. The Paylogic system is front and back office for payment. Mostly Python (84406 lines of code) and javascript.

There are many abstraction levels: components, classes, features, the code level. Process when doing a support case: staging, testing, bug reports. We use FogBugz as bug tracker. Example: downloading a 'scanware' file was broken. Problem solved now, but can we check automatically that it has indeed been fixed and is not broken later again. Maybe we can execute the bug report as a test? This can be done when you are rigid enough in specifying the bug report ('Given When Then' style: starting state, steps to reproduce, expected behavior). You can write a small language that specifies what should be done when you encounter specific text in a bug report, translating that to Selenium tests (visit this page, click there, check that text is on the resulting page). We use the robot framework.

You could do similar things with record and playback. But often the bug report is a missing requirement. We only want to add features that deliver value. Behavior driven development style: to have some fun (goal, value), as a customer (who, actor), I want to buy a ticket (reason). You can write that as:

• Given I am buying tickets
• When I choose the amount
• Then I see the total cost

So in one smooth, agile process you create these products: requirements document, acceptence tests, working code that delivers value, bug reports.