A Test-Driven Development Workshop
Thursday 21st November 6:30pm at Chroma Recruitment
Get ready for a hands-on experience at NWRUG this November as Rob Whittaker, Development Director at thoughtbot, leads us through a TDD (Test-Driven Development) workshop using the classic shopping cart kata. This session is perfect for developers interested in refining their TDD skills in Ruby, learning how to decouple complex pricing logic, and experimenting with flexible designs that adapt to ever-changing business requirements.
Rob brings over a decade of web and mobile development experience, from his beginnings in Perl to his mastery of Ruby on Rails, React, and React Native. His career spans critical roles, including scaling On the Beach teams and modernising Barclays and British Business Bank systems. Now leading thoughtbot’s Europe, West Asia, and Africa development teams, Rob is dedicated to building resilient, scalable products. He’ll guide us through this kata with real-world insight, especially in practices that make systems adaptable to frequent changes.
Workshop Overview: Building a Checkout System
In this kata, we’ll build a Ruby-based checkout system capable of handling diverse pricing schemes. Imagine a supermarket where some items have bulk prices—like “3 for £1.30” on apples. We’ll implement the functionality to scan SKUs in any order, dynamically applying discounts.
Participants will practice test-first approaches to decouple the pricing rules from the checkout system, enabling future enhancements and flexibility in the pricing structure. The kata offers a fun way to approach problem-solving while sharpening your design thinking.
What You’ll Get Out of It
This workshop offers practical TDD exercises focused on clean design and decoupling code. By the end, you’ll be familiar with: - Structuring tests for complex business logic. - Applying TDD principles to build flexible and adaptable systems. - Designing modular systems that can handle frequent rule changes without significant refactoring.
Don’t miss this chance to learn from a seasoned thoughtbot developer! Join us for an evening of Ruby, TDD, and thoughtful design principles. Newcomers and experienced developers alike are welcome.
Registration
To lock in your place (and so we know how much pizza to order) register now!
Don't forget all parts of our event, including the post-talk pub time, is covered by our code of conduct.