AutoTestPhilly is happy to present a ThoughtWorks discussion on software quality. ThoughtWorks works with clients all over the world, and Thoughtworkers Timothy Cochran and Dan Lockman will share experiences about introducing automated testing and working with teams to get everyone to care about quality.

They will share insights into designing for testability and common problems with acceptance tests. For example, if your tests are too hard to write, often it's an indication your application is designed poorly. Designing for testability allows for better tests and more maintainable code.

As consultants, Tim and Dan see a lot of badly written test suites. They will share thoughts about designing suites so that tests are repeatable across environments, how to get fast feedback to developers and testers, and how to avoid other common problems.

Timothy Cochran

Tim works for Thoughtworks New York, he has been full stack developer and architect for over 12 years. Working on everything from large distributed enterprise projects to small NGO visualisation apps. He is an expert in automated testing. Over the years, he has seen developers and testers make the same mistakes with writing testing time and time again.

tcochran@thoughtworks.com https://github.com/tcochran

Dan Lockman

Dan spent much of the last two years at ThoughtWorks learning lessons and gaining a variety of development experiences. He has developed products internally as part of an IT organization, and as a consultant coached, paired with, and developed for different clients. While experienced with several back-end and front-end frameworks, recently Dan has been enjoying building small restful micro-services paired with a rich AngularJS client-side experience. He spent much of the last two years learning lessons about strong test suites, writing testable code, and continuous integration.

dlockman@thoughtworks.com

ThoughtWorks is a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals. We think disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients' toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change.