PHPNE: The Test Suite Holy Trinity

For our January meeting we are pleased to announce The Test Suite Holy Trinity by Dave Liddament. Thanks to our sponsors who make our events possible: Sharpe Recruitment, Campus North, and Opia.

The event will take place at Campus North, Carliol Square, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 6UF (map).

The event is free and open to all, but please sign up online so that we have an idea of numbers for the venue and catering. Feedback, suggestions and ideas for future topics are welcome on Twitter.

The Test Suite Holy Trinity by Dave Liddament

What would the perfect test suite look like? Well it would definitely fully test every bit of functionality. It would run lightning fast. And the test suite would be quick to write. That sounds great right?

Unfortunately these 3 goals work against each other. Increasing test coverage will increase the time spent writing and executing tests. Reducing test execution time will result in lower coverage.

This talk look at the properties of unit, integration and system tests in terms of what they test, how fast they run and how quick they are to write. Will look at how to get the most out of testing at each of these levels, how best to architect code for testing and where best to make comprises. Although by the end of the talk we won’t have quite achieved the Test Suite Holy Trinity, we’ll be a step closer.

Dave Liddament

Dave is a director and developer at Lamp Bristol, a software consultancy. He’s been writing software commercially for over 15 years in many languages including C, Python, Java and PHP.

Dave is keen to pass on his knowledge. He is an organiser and regular speaker at PHP-SW. He also runs a monthly workshop that covers topics including testing, CI and git.

When not busy coding Dave enjoys scuba diving and running.

After the event, many of us will be going to the Warerooms next door, for some liquid refreshments.