SPA Conference session: Wading through treacle? Escape the integration syrup with contract tests | |||
| One-line description: | We'll explore how a focus on testing the contracts between services and consumers can decouple the delivery activities of collaborating teams, helping us release software more frequently | ||
| Session format: | Slides, Questions, Discussion [read about the different session types] | ||
| Abstract: | What's blocking you from releasing features as fast as your competitors? When your services integrate with those of other teams, the integration phase is only as fast as its slowest activity - typically, manual regression testing. Queues form as teams wait to get their work into the next release. Similarly, if you own a large number of services, testing and deploying them together leads to undesirable batching effects. To go faster, teams may seek to promote and release each component independently. But how can they be sure that service versions will interoperate if they haven't been tested together? Fast, lightweight "contract tests" capture the implicit agreements between services and consumers. They decouple the delivery activities of collaborating teams without losing the feedback loops that alert us to integration problems. In this talk, I'll share my experiences and we'll see how we can get features out quickly, without sacrificing quality. | ||
| Audience background: | Intermediate to experienced software developers, testers, tech leads and architects who have working experience or interest in continuous delivery. | ||
| Benefits of participating: | Understand how contract testing can assist you in decoupling your development and delivery from that of other teams you collaborate with and in so doing, reduce lead times for business-critical features. Understand the options you have for where to apply contract tests. Appreciate the costs involved in contract testing. Get an appraisal of some of the tools in the space. Understand in which contexts you should/should not use contract tests. | ||
| Materials provided: | Slide deck | ||
| Process: | Talk followed by questions and discussion | ||
| Detailed timetable: | 00:00 - 00:55 Slide Presentation 00:55 - 01:15 Questions and discussion | ||
| Outputs: | Slide deck | ||
| History: | No previous history. I plan to have presented the talk a number of times before the conference. | ||
| Presenters | |||
| 1. Stefan Smith ThoughtWorks Ltd |
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