Fit for Developing Software: Framework for Integrated Tests

Ward Cunningham invented CRC cards (which helped get us through the first decade of object-oriented design), many of the principles of Extreme Programming, and wikis (Wikipedia is a natural extension of his "Portland Patterns Repository"). Now he's pioneered a way to tie together the front end and tail end of software development efforts (requirements and testing), and to help technical and non-technical people work together to describe what software should do. Incidentally, he's provided a way to measure *real* progress, by tallying up what customer value has been successfully implemented. FIT and Fitnesse haven't yet taken the software development profession by storm. Compare that to test-driven development and JUnit/xUnit, back in 1998: they took a while to catch on, but now they're an important part of the software development profession. Want to get a heads start on the next "next thing"? Read this book.

Even though Rick and Ward's book on Fit is the first book available on Fit-perhaps the most popular acceptance testing tool among the whole agile community-and one might be tempted to think it's selling well because of that alone, I'm saying this book is a hit on its own merits. I read the beta drafts of the book like many others at the time and was instantly gratified as I read through the table of contents. Ward and Rick didn't make the mistake of writing a pure tool book. They wrote a book that focuses not just on the tool itself but also on using the tool. I ordered a hardcopy as soon as it was released. I devoured it, loved it, and am still using it as a reference today on projects using Fit. The first part is all about expressing tests with Fit's tables in a way that communicates well. The built-in fixtures are introduced one by one from the perspective of a test engineer wanting to test different kinds of aspects of a system. The first time the authors actually show how to run the tests is in chapter 7. This approached proved to be an excellent choice, as far as I'm concerned. The focus really stays on creating tests without digressions into technical implementation. After a brief tour through FitNesse, a display of Fitlibrary's power and flexibility, and some miscellaneous topics, Part 2 takes the reader to another level-the process of turning requirements into Fit tables and the strenghts and benefits of using a tool like Fit in developing software. This is delivered using an imaginary software project as a vehicle in illustrating the communication between people while they're honing their acceptance tests. Part 3 turns the table and puts the developer hat on. In an action-packed 70 pages, the authors show how to write the Java code backing up all those different kinds of fixture tables we saw in Parts 1 and 2. The discussion is concise and to the point, covering the fixtures rather well. Having said that, I was left with some open questions regarding extending the built-in (and Fitlibrary) fixtures, mostly regarding Fit's internal API. That, however, has been a problem with me and Fit since day one so it's probably just my wiring that's incompatible. Besides, there's more on the internals in the last part of the book. Part 4 is two-fold. First, we see how the fixtures created in Part 2 look like in Java. There's not too much explanation involved but I didn't feel like that was an issue. The rest of Part 4 is a mixture of topics such as mocking certain aspects of a system, making the system's architecture more testing-friendly, and such. I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the mocking section, having hoped for a more elaborate example rather than sticking to faking system time. Part 5 starts with a very brief description of Fit's internal API (introducing concepts of Parse object, "more", and so forth, if you've already taken a peek at Fit's source code) and how to develop custom fixtures. Personally, I would've liked to have

This book has been called "two books in one", and I definitely agree. The first two parts are for customers and other non-programming team members. The latter parts are aimed at developers and have the technical topics. Ward said that as he and Rick were working on the book it started to get confusing, switching back and forth between the business-facing discussions and the technical discussions. Ward felt it best to cover the basics first, so they agreed to separate the book to speak to the two audiences one at a time. The resulting organization allows the book plenty of breathing room to address the needs of both audiences. The "Questions & Answers" sections scattered throughout the book contain some of the most valuable gems. Here are a couple of examples related to ActionFixture: * From Chapter 10, p 73, "Some action rows have a keyword in the last cell. Is that optional?" * From Chapter 22, p 193, "Why does the actor have to be a subclass of fit.Fixture? You'll have to buy the book to see the answers, though! I wrote of a conversion of FIT to the Objective-C language -- with a bit of help from Ward. Still I found real value in having a book that speaks from the customer perspective and delves into creating FIT tables from that perspective.

Fit and FitNesse are fabulous open-source tools that are revolutionizing the testing world by getting programmers, testers and business experts all working together to specify and automate tests. Having such a thorough and easy-to-use book documenting these tools makes them accessible to everyone. The book is organized so that some sections are aimed at the programmers automating the tests, while other sections are aimed at everyone involved in writing the tests, including non-technical business folks. There are plenty of easy-to-follow real-world examples. As a tester, this book has helped me improve my test design, and given me a bigger box of tools to use. My programmer teammates refer to the book on a daily basis, getting tips that are taking our FitNesse tests to a new level of usability and effectiveness. If you're a tester, a programmer, or their customer, join the revolution. Download Fit or FitNesse, and buy this book!

This is a wonderful book. I first saw Fit during its infancy and I didn't "get it." This book will help any reader very quickly understand how this type of testing can help any software project. And, it will help you become skilled at testing this way. This book starts out with the very basics then progresses into a case study. The first 180 pages are meant for anyone-programmers, tester, business person, etc. This first part is extremely valuable as it helps you see how Fit can benefit your develop projects. The next 150 or so pages are meant for those with a programming background and show how to extend Fit by writing and using custom fixtures. Even though I'd written a fair number of fixtures already, I learned a lot from this section. The book is well-written and easy to read. Chapters include periodic Q & A sections and each ends with a set of exercises. I didn't do all the exercises but I did some and they are very helpful. I highly recommend this book. You will not be disappointed.