Behavior Driven Database Development (BDDD)

Scott Ambler (IBM)

Discovery Sessions · Developing

Monday, 16:00, 1 hour 30 minutes | Meeting Room 16

A behavior-driven design (BDD) approach can be taken to a database schema just like it can be taken to application code. Behavior driven database design (BDDD) is enabled by database refactoring, database regression testing, and continuous database integration: 1. A database refactoring is a simple change to a database which improves the design without changing its semantics. 2. Database regression testing is the act of running a comprehensive test suite which validates a database on a regular basis, ideally whenever a change is made to the database schema itself or when the database is accessed in a different manner. 3. Continuous database integration is the act of rebuilding and retesting a database schema whenever it changes. In this workshop Scott Ambler will begin with an overview of BDDD and why it is important for agile software development. As a group we will identify what we feel to be critical aspects to be discussed regarding BDDD. Participants will then self-organize into smaller groups of 4-6 people to discuss an aspect which they are interested in. After this discussion each subgroup will present their findings to the overall group. Potential aspects we may wish to discuss include: 1. Is there a need for BDDD? 2. What are the cultural/organizational challenges to adopting BDDD? 3. What tooling support is required? 4. What needs to be tested in a database? 5. How well will BDDD scale?

Scott W. Ambler is Practice Leader Agile Development within IBM Rational's methods group. He is founder and thought leader of the Agile Modeling (AM) (www.agilemodeling.com), Agile Data (AD) (www.agiledata.org), Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) (www.enterpriseunifiedprocess.com), and Agile Unified Process (AUP) (www.ambysoft.com/unifiedprocess) methodologies. Scott is the (co-)author of several books, including Refactoring Databases, Agile Modeling, Agile Database Techniques, The Object Primer 3rd Edition, and The Elements of UML 2.0 Style. Scott is a contributing editor with Dr. Dobb's Journal (www.ddj.com) and has spoken and keynoted at a wide variety of international conferences including Software Development, UML World, Object Expo, Java Expo, and Application Development. Scott graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Information Science. In his spare time Scott studies the Goju Ryu and Kobudo styles of karate.