This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Robert Hurlbut. Original Post: Heading up to Vermont this weekend for unit testing and TDD Feed Title: Robert Hurlbut's .Net Blog Feed URL: http://www.asp.net/err404.htm?aspxerrorpath=/rhurlbut/Rss.aspx Feed Description: Development with .Net, Rotor, Distributed Architectures, Security, Extreme Programming, and Databases Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Robert Hurlbut Latest Posts From Robert Hurlbut's .Net Blog

I will be speaking at the Vermont .NET Users Group in Burlington, Vermont on Monday, April 11. My topic will be Unit Testing, Test Driven Development, and NUnit. I am really looking forward to again seeing Julie Lerman (who does a fantastic job of leading the group), Dave Burke, and meeting Roman Rehak (Roman has graciously offered for me to stay at his house). I am also looking forward to seeing the great group of people I met the last time I was at the Vermont group.

According to Julie, they will be handing out Dr. Neil Roodyn's book eXtreme .NET as one of the swag gifts. I hadn't read this book before, so over the last couple of days I have been reading it. So far, I would place it as a good introductory book to eXtreme Programming techniques using .NET. In terms of what to read first, second, and third, I recommend Kent Beck's book on Extreme Programming Explained and his book Test Driven Development: By Example, and then Dr. Neil's book For a more in-depth treatment, look at Jim Newkirk's excellent Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET.

In Dr. Neil's book, one term that I wasn't familiar with (at least the name) is "spiking". Spiking, according to Dr. Neil, is using rapid experimentation to validate your expectations about behavior, in this case, within the .NET Framework. I do that a lot when I am not sure about something and need to create some quick tests to validate or counter my assumptions. Its a powerful technique and time should be allowed for it when necessary.