So that's why all these feature things were written

Journey continued last Friday. We spent 4 hours exploring UI test automation. Presentations were again given, this time only one per topic for the whole audience. Some discussion was held but we still got to see only a glimpse of the problems and solutions related to automating UI tests. Especially the design patterns used among at least some test coders would have been something interesting to try in the dojo. But we didn't get that far.

Tool topic was about Watir. I really enjoyed the approach in the learning session. That is, the group had prepared some simple example codes and went through them. A bit more clear and thorough explaining of the code and brief introduction on the helpful links (examples, cheat sheets, documentation) would have made the session perfect.

The actual coding part was a success. It looked like the session cleared many things related to previous dojo. Nice. The group I was in concentrated again on the problem, really tried to push towards a good solution and used the experts to get over difficult parts. The task was a really simple one but we already saw some concrete things that are present always when you write UI test code. Like how to verify, what to actually test, how to do it DRY enough etc. Small things. But valuable.

Then the improving part. Based on the feedback some attendees found the working method we used too slow. When combined to unfamiliar language (Ruby) the achievements were not enough for some. What then to do about it? Dojos are slow in nature but of course things can be done to make learning smoother. Perhaps we should have encouraged people to learn some Ruby before the dojos so we could have been able to skip the things related to language syntax. I find the hiccups related to unfamiliar language still quite small. Also a longer dojo (=coding part) might have helped. Or then we could have only introduced the things in the dojo and let people continue coding on their own.

So a few things to consider. One thing I did in our group was that I "easened up" the rules and allowed more talking from the watchers. Just to get over the language related things. But next time will try to concentrate more on that.

Next Friday we will then concentrate on whole new things. Exciting challenge is waiting for us there. Different but exciting.