Continuous Integration: Continuous Build or Continuous Quality Control?

The last Methods & Tools poll wanted to determine the level of adoption of continuous integration tools in organizations. The following question was asked: “Do you use a tool for continuous integration (automated build and unit testing)?”

I use tools for continuous integration	66%
My organization has tools, but my project or I do not use them	13%
My organization has no tools for continuous integration	21%

Participants: 130
Ending date: September 2010
Source: Methods & Tools Continuous Integration Tools Survey

A large majority of the participants is using continuous integration tools, but it remains to see how continuous is the continuous integration used by participants. It is easy to understand that this practice is one of the easiest to put in place as it is basically a pure technical issue of combining the build process with the unit testing tools. However, previous Methods & Tools unit testing execution surveys performed in 2006 and 2008 on showed that between 50% and 60% of participants were not using unit tests or were doing them in an informal way. Continuous integration could thus be considered by organizations more as a continuous build process that a continuous testing of the code quality.

Resources:

* Continuous Integration Feature Matrix
* Continuous Integration: The Cornerstone of a Great Shop
* Continuous Integration Tools directory

JMeter Load Testing Tool Presentation

An interesting presentation of the load testing tool JMeter has been published by the software development magazine Methods & Tools. Apache JMeter is open source software, a 100% pure Java desktop application designed to (load) test functional behavior and measure performance. It was originally designed for testing Web Applications but has since expanded to other test functions.

GWT Testing Best Practices

GWT has a lot of little-publicized infrastructure that can help you build apps The Right Way: test-driven development, code coverage, comprehensive unit tests, and integration testing using Selenium or WebDriver. This GWT Testing Best Practices session will survey GWT’s testing infrastructure, describe some best practices we’ve developed at Google, and help you avoid common pitfalls.

Contract Tests in JUnit 4

J.B. Rainsberger talked about how contract tests can be used to test the interaction between classes when using a mockist approach to developer testing. He wondered aloud if it would be possible to write these kinds of tests using abstract classes and JUnit 4. The answer is yes, with some caveats, as Ben Rady demonstrates it. You can watch this presentation called "Contract Tests in JUnit 4" on the directory of Java videos and tutorials.

Load Testing Tools Directory

This a directory of open source and commercial software tools for load and performance testing with reviews and resources.

Writing Testable Code

This article presents practices to write more testable code with many examples in java.

http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=103

Website Stress Testing using JMeter

This video shows you how to use JMeter to stress test your website or web application. You can watch the video called "Website Stress Testing using JMeter" on the software testing videos and tutorials directory.