Episode 73

This week on Herding Code, Jon leads a discussion with Daniel Plaisted about Model-Based Testing and the progressive practices of the MEF team.

• Daniel speaks of the primary development roles at Microsoft and how the MEF team addresses testing concerns. Guess what.  Developers write tests, too.
• Daniel talks about Model-Based Testing and validation of transitions and states.
• Scott K is reminded of a presentation he attended at Northwest Python Day which spoke of protocol and framework testing.
• Daniel shares the need of trim test cases to manageable sets which will still ensure adequate coverage.
• Jon asks about mapping out the endless states that may be found when testing MEF. 
• Jon asks about test frequency. Are tests run on each check-in?  Are they scheduled?
• The guys address the difference test types - unit, functional, performance and stress tests.
• Kevin asks about coordination of developer and tester efforts.  Who produces which tests and where is each group's focus?
• Daniel explains Exploratory Testing
• Scott K asks about Heisenbugs and how closely testers work with developers to resolve hard-to-reproduce defects.
• Jon asks if the MEF testers use any debug/test tools which are built into Visual Studio.
• Kevin asks if any special considerations must be made when QAing an open source project. 
• Daniel explains how model-based testing works well for verifying cache states.
• Scott K asks about test environment setups and how deep the MEF testers need to dive into the bugs in order to adequately report on them.
• Jon asks Daniel to share tips to help developers improve their own unit tests and improve broader testing.
• Daniel talks about MEF's beginnings. It's not an IoC container.  Oh wait. It is.
• What type of tester are you?  The guys speak of a recent Google Tester Blog post on tester types.
• Kevin ask if the progressive approach which MEF takes is gaining traction throughout Microsoft.
• Jon asks how Daniel became a tester, a Microsoft MEF tester.
• Kevin asks how much collaborating occurs between the various testing teams at Microsoft.
• Daniel briefly talks about Synchronization Coverage.

Note: The audio's a little rougher than usual this week. Sorry about that.

Show Links:

• Daniel Plaisted's Blog
• @dsplaisted
• Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)
• Model-Based Testing
• Northwest Python Day
• Heisenbug
• Castle Windsor
• Google Tester Blog
• Interviewing Insights and Test Frameworks

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 73: Daniel Plaisted on Model-Based Testing in Action on the MEF Team