Idea Foundry: Training by Collective Idea

Hands-on Training Takes a Holiday

Behavior Driven Development – — Holland, Michigan

Evolve your development processes by focusing on the behavior from the outside-in.

Testing is for testers. Learn to express the behavior of your applications from the outside-in, one step at a time. Spend four days learning Behavior Driven Development using RSpec and Cucumber in the context of a Ruby on Rails application. With ample one-on-one learning opportunities, you'll gain hands-on experience with the tools and techniques that drive BDD.

Topics we'll cover include

Introduction

  • Background
  • RSpec
  • Cucumber
  • BDD Cycle
  • Tools: Webrat, Selenium

Getting started w/Cucumber

  • Describing features
  • Automating acceptance criteria
  • Steps and step definitions
  • Cucumber configuration
  • Background, Callbacks, Hooks, Tags
  • Scenario Outlines

Getting started w/RSpec

  • Code examples
  • Expectations
  • Matchers
  • Macros
  • Mocks and Stubs
  • RSpec Configuration

Developing a Rails app

  • Traditional Rails development
  • Outside-in development
  • Cucumber w/Rails: Scenarios, Webrat, Selenium
  • Views
  • Controllers
  • Models
  • Helpers
  • POROs

Real World Practices, Techniques

  • Selenium integration
  • Presenters
  • Test Data Builders

Speaker

Zach Dennis

Photo of Zach

A co-author of The RSpec Book and frequent contributor to the RSpec codebase, Zach knows a thing or two about Behavior Driven Development. When he’s not coming up with new testing techniques for his clients at Mutually Human Software he’s blogging about it at continuousthinking.com. 

Location

CityFlats Hotel

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The Behavior Driven Development training will be held at the CityFlats Hotel located in Holland, Michigan.

Recently certified LEED Gold, CityFlats is a beautiful and comfortable venue for the week.

CityFlats is offering a great rate of $109/night, discounted from $189, for the training. Contact us for details.

There are several other options nearby

Holland, Michigan

A picturesque city on the shore of Lake Michigan, Holland is a beautiful and welcoming place to learn, play and relax.

You'll truly feel like you're on vacation.

How to get here

  • Air

    We're a short ride from Grand Rapids International Airport (GRR). We provide a free shuttle.

  • Road

    Less than 3 hours driving from Chicago or Detroit. Free parking on-site.

  • Rail

    Amtrak trains leave daily from Chicago and arrive 2 blocks from the hotel.

  • Water

    Ferries run from Milwaukee, WI to nearby Muskegon, MI. If you're bringing a yacht, we can help arrange docking.

Schedule

Daytime

Training will run from 9am–4pm each day. From 4–5pm, you can ask one-on-one questions, get feedback on personal projects, or head out on the town. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided.

Evenings

You'll have chances to explore the nearby beaches, restaurants, shopping, or the next-door microbrewery.

Things to bring and take home

A Laptop. Any OS will do. We use Macs, but are friendly towards Windows, Linux, or whatever else you may have. We'll help you get set up before you come.

The first day, we'll give you a book of everything we'll cover in the training. You'll also get access to all the source code we use in examples.

Friends & Family

We warmly welcome you to bring your family or significant other (we've even had roommates and pets). They're welcome to join us at our evening events, and there is lots to do within walking distance during the day. We're glad to give suggestions. So whether you stick with the group or go off on your own, you'll enjoy your stay.

Weather

June weather in Michigan is usually beautiful so bring shorts but pack a light jacket. Averages range from 79°F down to 55°F at night.