Maintainable - Marit van Dijk: How Are We Going to Test This?

Marit van Dijk: How Are We Going to Test This?

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02/10/20 • 37 min

Maintainable

In this episode of Maintainable, Robby sits down with Marit van Dijk, a Software Engineer at bol.com. Marit brings a wealth of experience from her work on complex systems and her involvement in the European testing conference and the Cucumber community. They dive deep into the importance of testing, maintaining legacy code, and the collaborative nature of software development.

Episode Highlights

[00:01:00] The Role of Tests in Well-Maintained Codebases: Marit emphasizes the importance of clear and intent-driven tests in understanding application behavior and maintaining code quality.
[00:01:55] Dependency Management in Legacy Systems: Marit discusses the challenges of keeping dependencies up to date and the potential issues that arise when they fall behind.
[00:02:35] Documentation Practices: Exploring the differences in documentation needs for internal projects versus open-source projects, and how README files play a critical role in onboarding and running applications.
[00:05:09] Defining Technical Debt: Marit shares her perspective on technical debt, including the concept of "code rot" and how it can slow down development over time.
[00:06:41] Empathy in Software Maintenance: The importance of understanding the context in which legacy code was written and having empathy for past decisions.
[00:08:53] Test-Driven Development for Bug Fixing: Marit explains how writing tests first when fixing bugs can ensure a thorough understanding of the issue and lead to more reliable fixes.
[00:14:52] bol.com's Approach to Automation: How bol.com uses automation tools to maintain its large-scale platform, ensuring consistency and reliability across its services.
[00:15:48] Collaborative Coding: The benefits of pair programming and mob programming, and how they contribute to knowledge sharing and faster problem-solving within a team.
[00:18:03] Managing Technical Debt: Strategies for integrating technical debt management into the development process and how to advocate for it within a team.
[00:21:00] Isolating Test Environments: How Marit and her team use mock testing to ensure that tests are maintainable and independent of other services in their landscape.
[00:25:15] The Balance Between Refactoring and Rewriting: Marit shares her preference for refactoring over rewriting and discusses the challenges of maintaining complex applications.
[00:29:23] Advocating for Maintenance Work: Tips on how developers can make the case for addressing technical debt and maintenance within their teams.

Key Takeaways

Testing is a cornerstone of well-maintained software, helping to ensure that code behaves as expected and can be confidently changed or extended.
Documentation, whether in README files or more extensive systems like Confluence, is critical for both onboarding and long-term maintenance.
Managing technical debt is an ongoing process that requires empathy, strategic planning, and sometimes, a bit of civil disobedience.
Collaborative coding practices like pair programming and mob programming can accelerate problem-solving and foster a culture of continuous learning.
Refactoring code, rather than rewriting it from scratch, can often be a more effective approach to maintaining complex systems.

Helpful Links

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Episode Highlights

[00:01:00] The Role of Tests in Well-Maintained Codebases: Marit emphasizes the importance of clear and intent-driven tests in understanding application behavior and maintaining code quality.
[00:01:55] Dependency Management in Legacy Systems: Marit discusses the challenges of keeping dependencies up to date and the potential issues that arise when they fall behind.
[00:02:35] Documentation Practices: Exploring the differences in documentation needs for internal projects versus open-source projects, and how README files play a critical role in onboarding and running applications.
[00:05:09] Defining Technical Debt: Marit shares her perspective on technical debt, including the concept of "code rot" and how it can slow down development over time.
[00:06:41] Empathy in Software Maintenance: The importance of understanding the context in which legacy code was written and having empathy for past decisions.
[00:08:53] Test-Driven Development for Bug Fixing: Marit explains how writing tests first when fixing bugs can ensure a thorough understanding of the issue and lead to more reliable fixes.
[00:14:52] bol.com's Approach to Automation: How bol.com uses automation tools to maintain its large-scale platform, ensuring consistency and reliability across its services.
[00:15:48] Collaborative Coding: The benefits of pair programming and mob programming, and how they contribute to knowledge sharing and faster problem-solving within a team.
[00:18:03] Managing Technical Debt: Strategies for integrating technical debt management into the development process and how to advocate for it within a team.
[00:21:00] Isolating Test Environments: How Marit and her team use mock testing to ensure that tests are maintainable and independent of other services in their landscape.
[00:25:15] The Balance Between Refactoring and Rewriting: Marit shares her preference for refactoring over rewriting and discusses the challenges of maintaining complex applications.
[00:29:23] Advocating for Maintenance Work: Tips on how developers can make the case for addressing technical debt and maintenance within their teams.

Key Takeaways

Testing is a cornerstone of well-maintained software, helping to ensure that code behaves as expected and can be confidently changed or extended.
Documentation, whether in README files or more extensive systems like Confluence, is critical for both onboarding and long-term maintenance.
Managing technical debt is an ongoing process that requires empathy, strategic planning, and sometimes, a bit of civil disobedience.
Collaborative coding practices like pair programming and mob programming can accelerate problem-solving and foster a culture of continuous learning.
Refactoring code, rather than rewriting it from scratch, can often be a more effective approach to maintaining complex systems.

Helpful Links

Subscribe to Maintainable on:

Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

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Previous Episode

Mike Perham: How Developers Underestimate Long-Term Costs of External Dependencies

Robby speaks with Mike Perham, Founder and CEO at Contribsys and author of Sidekiq and Faktory. They discuss the pros and cons of using external dependencies, how Mike built a business off of his open source project, Sidekiq, and the dIfference in maintaining Ruby vs Go software projects.

Helpful Links

Mike on Github
Mike on Twitter
mikeperham.com
Contribsys
Sidekiq
[Book] Rising by Elizabeth Rush
[Book] The Watch, Thoroughly Revised by Gene Stone and Stephen Pulvirent

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Next Episode

Ernesto Tagwerker: Tracking Technical Debt With Metrics (aka Stink Score)

In the latest episode of Maintainable, we're joined by Ernesto Tagwerker, Founder and CTO of OmbuLabs. This isn't just another podcast episode; it's a deep dive into the world of technical debt and Ruby on Rails.

Ernesto starts by demystifying technical debt – it's more than just a buzzword; it's a real challenge that can turn your project into a Tar Pit. And, believe it or not, there are actual tools to measure this. We explore these tools and how they can help identify technical debt and communicate the progress of tackling it.

Then, we get into the juicy part: Ruby on Rails upgrades. Ernesto shares the strategies his team at OmbuLabs uses to help clients with these upgrades. And I, Robby, chime in with how we handle similar challenges at Planet Argon. It's like getting insights from two different angles on the same tricky problem!

We also touch on recruiting consultant-minded developers, hiring junior devs, and what senior developers should aim for in mentoring. Oh, and for the Rails enthusiasts, Ernesto gives us a sneak peek into what's coming in Rails 6.1.