[LRUG] March Meeting Testing Appendix

[Anthony Green]

Ben Griffiths wrote:
> I really wonder how much this 'here is the new methodology' stuff is
> less to do with writing working software and a bit more to do with
> answering the age-old question: "how do I package software consultancy
> services so as to extract as much money from big organisations as
> possible?"
>
> I'm guessing it's just me that thinks that.

To turn the question around: how much insightful criticism is there in 
that statement or is just that you can't teach an old cynic, lead a 
horse... ?

The GOOS people have backgrounds in Smalltalk and distributed systems 
and the book was, according to it's authors, a result of 10 years of 
discussions at XP Tuesday meet ups and OOPSLA papers. It is intended as 
a companion to Rebecca Wirfs-Brock's writing around 
responsibility-driven design.

Dan North was the author of the term BDD in 2006 and though he still 
occasionally writes about the topic he more often directs to checkout 
Liz and Chris for better explanations.

I've met those mentioned at XP/Agile conferences, Skills Exchanges, meet 
ups etc. Some are consultants, some run agencies, some work for 
companies. Amongst that self-selecting crowd all are respected thinkers, 
all have been happy to have exchanges and share ideas with said crowd, 
and of those mentioned the only one I'm unsure as to whether they write 
'working software' is Chris Matts who's a Business Analyst:
http://decision-coach.com/the-agile-business-analyst-is-an-oxymoron,

Their ideas may not be new but it doesn't mean they don't have value. 
One way to determine that is to look into them whilst not neglecting 
critical appraisal and common sense as you go.

Best

-- 

Anthony Green
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