OPP 2008 offers much more than "just" PL/SQL training. You also have the opportunity to participate in the OPP 2008 Test-A-Thon.
Why a Test-A-Thon?
Testing is a crucial component of high-quality application development. Unit testing, the testing of individual units of code, is fundamentally important but terribly neglected. The best developers have their own testing strategies—or have found tools to help them get the job done. What do you have, use, or do to test your PL/SQL code? Are you confident enough in your testing to go up against other PL/SQL developers? Sure you are!
Who Should Participate?
You do not need to be an expert PL/SQL programmer to participate or even win the Test-A-Thon. The programs you will be testing are simple and straightforward. You do need, however, to be comfortable reading and understanding PL/SQL code.
How the Test-A-Thon Works
At the start of the contest, Steven Feuerstein will present you with a set of programs that perform typical PL/SQL operations—nothing exotic. Along with those programs comes supporting test data, a list of tests that you need to perform, and the results you should get for each test (most will be successful, but some will fail).
You will then have one hour to write test code to show which tests succeed and which fail for the programs. Your test results must be self-verifying. That is, we will not manually verify your tests to see if they worked or not. Instead, we will need to be able to run some script or tool to automatically validate the results. What we run for validation is entirely up to you, but Quest will provide you with trial versions of Quest Code Tester for Oracle (a test automation tool for PL/SQL).
Who Wins the Test-A-Thon?
You will be given a set of basic and bonus exercises based on the programs mentioned above. Everyone who completes the basic exercises will be eligible for second place awards. The developer who gets furthest along in their testing in that hour (this will likely mean that you have finished all the basic exercises and zoomed right along on the bonuses) will win the Test-A-Thon.
Hint: the more proficient you are with an automated testing tool, be it Quest Code Tester or utPLSQL, the more likely it is that you will win.
What You Could Win
You don't really need to take home a prize, do you? Isn't the satisfaction of being the best PL/SQL tester at OPP 2008 enough? Probably. Still, we will be giving out a bunch of cool prizes to our first and second place winners. And everyone who participates in the Test-A-Thon will receive a one-of-a-kind Test-A-Thon t-shirt.
What You Need with You to Participate
Most important: you will need to bring your own laptop, preferably with a local Oracle database installed on it. We will provide a small number of laptops for those who do not have their own, but you are much more likely to be able to compete (and win) if you have your own and are familiar with what is on it. You should also bring on that laptop all the software you want to use to build and run your tests.
Last but not Least
The Test-A-Thon will be part of the reception, so there will be food, drink, and a seriously practical festive mood. It will not be over until approximately 8:30 p.m. If you do not already have a room reservation at the Wyndham, you might want to consider making one for at least that evening.
