Neal Ford

Presentations

Testing with Selenium

Selenium is the premiere open source user acceptance testing tool for web applications. This session covers all the basics you need to become proficient using Selenium, including setup, actions, assertions, and customization. I cover the basics of both TestRunner and Remote Control Selenium, discussing where each is important. I also show automation tools like the SeleniumIDE for recording tests.

This talk provides a firm foundation for starting, maintaining, and leveraging Selenium testing for your web applications.

Advanced Selenium

This session discusses advanced Selenium techniques for testing web applications. It discusses techniques for both TestRunner and Remote Control Selenium, including data driven tests, creating branch points, testing Ajax applications, creating flexible tests, integration with continuous integration, and tons more. This session takes Selenium to the next level, showing how to handle complex, real world scenarios in Selenium.

Mostly, though, this session delves into specific techniques for testing real world kinds of behaviors in web applications. I discuss data driven tests, generated tests, decision points in tests, interactive Remote Control, integration with continuous integration, testing Ajax applications, and future directions. This session will turn up the volume on your testing to "11".

Web Punchlist

When you buy a new house, you tour the new property with the builder with a punchlist, finding all the fit and finish things that aren't quite right yet. You've built your web site, and it all seems to be working. Where's the punchlist for your web site? This session gives you just that: a checklist you can use to verify that your web application is ready for occupation.

I cover things like where import your JavaScript and CSS, how to handle images so that they are aggressively cached, how much you should care about XHTML, and lots more. This talk will give you a fit and finish check list you can apply to your shiny new web application to see if it's up to spec.

Build Your Own Technology Radar

Watch Preview Video

A Technology Radar is a tool that forces you to organize and think about near term future technology decisions, both for you and your company.

ThoughtWorks' Technical Advisory Board creates a "technolgy radar" 3 or 4 times a year. It is a working document that helps the company as a whole make decisions about what technologies are interesting and where we should be spending our time. This is a useful exercise both for you and your company. This session describes the process we use and how to adapt it to both your company and, more importantly, yourself. For career risk mitigation, you must know what the next big thing is, or at least be able to narrow it to a reasonable list. Attendees will leave with tools that enhance your filtering mechanisms for new technology and help you (and your organization) develop a cogent strategy to make good choices.