I'm looking for something very specific I read once about unit test reporting for product owners. I'm pretty sure it was in one of the Robert C. Martin series of books and I thought it was in Mike Cohn's book Agile Estimating and Planning, although I wasn't able to find it again.  Would a question about this be on-topic on Stack Exchange? Which would be the best site to ask on?
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Stuff like polls, recommendations based on subjective constraints, puzzles, webcomics etc. do not belong on the serious main SE sites, where professionals should be considered at work and having just a few spare minutes ("code's compiling") to answer questions, so they should not be distracted by such things. However, I'd also like to have a home for these things still using the SE engine. For the reason I mentioned before, this needs to be a separate place though. Let's call it four.[sitename-here].com.
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There are lots of questions that come up when thinking about getting software productive.   Like how to do versioning of the software, how to deploy it on client side and generally how to roll software out.  Having done this multiple times in different ways, there are still lots of open questions.  If I ask them on stackoverflow, they will get closed with very high probability. They are not to programming related, I cannot provide code, they seem to be  ideally suited for "off topic".  So: Where can I ask those questions?  -edit-  To have more concrete example of the questions that I would like to ask:   What to consider before rolling software out? How to version a bunch of assemblies without having to edit lots of config files? How to keep software on client side up to date? ...   I would really appreciate to ask those questions myself, if there is a place for it somewhere. SO seems to be no match.
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I'm an undergraduate statistics student looking for a good treatment of clinical trials analysis. The text should cover the fundamentals of experimental design, blocking, power analysis, latin squares design, and cluster randomization designs, among other topics.   I have an undergraduate knowledge of mathematical statistics and real analysis, but if there's a fantastic text that requires a bit higher level of statistics or analysis, I can work up to it.
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This is a canonical question and answer developed by the community to help address common questions. If you've been directed here, or your question has been closed as a duplicate, please look through the resources here and use them to shape more specific questions. To browse all canonical questions and answers, including more unit test resources, navigate to the  tag.  This canonical question is intended to address several classes of common questions by providing a quick summary and links to comprehensive resources:   How do I start writing my first unit test?  How do I unit test this code?  I need help writing this unit test.   Salesforce Stack Exchange looks for detailed, specific questions that the community can help you with, and can't write tests on your behalf. We feel that working with the resources below can help you get started, and we encourage you to make an attempt to write your test and return to SFSE with your specific questions when you encounter challenges you can't resolve.
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I'm looking for some insight into how Stack Overflow releases are deployed and managed.   What software/tooling is used? What time are releases generally performed? How many and what steps are involved?   I'm assuming it's not too stringent given the light team working on the codebase. But considering the high rate of change, I could see some kind of tooling and automation becoming increasingly relevant, so I'm curious to learn what kind of decisions are being made to deal with the changes in scale and feature set over time.  Is this information available somewhere?
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Nothing can ruin your day like a poorly-written bug report.  I've seen several sets of guidelines for bug reporting in different organizations. In your opinion, what guidelines/steps are most essential for good bug reporting?  Feel free to share complete guideline recommendations from prior/current projects/organizations.
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I have a big code library that I need to refactor in order for it to fit more nicely together (one big problem is there aren't clear enough boundaries between each component).  Since there will be some regression testing necessary to validate any refactoring, would it make sense to:   Create a unit test for a particular piece of code Run the unit test and make sure it passes Refactor the code and check that the unit test still passes   This seems like a good idea to start using a TDD approach to this refactoring process, although my biggest concern is that I'm writing unit tests after the existing code (instead of writing the code after the unit tests).    Since I'm writing unit tests AFTER the code, should I first refactor, do my own regression tests, then continue using the TDD steps (write failing test, write passing code, refactor, repeat)?
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I'm just putting the finishing touches on the 9th iteration of my self-designed RPG system (with its own setting), and though it was woefully rocky in its early days I think that it's really coming together well. I'm running a handful of pbp games in v8.3, and have collected some encouraging data, and v9.0 is really feeling close to my initial vision.  Now, however, I'd like to see the game tested from a GM's point of view. When 9.0 is fully written up I'd like to find a group to pick up and use the materials with my input being limited to observation, and question fielding.  Do groups exist who like to playtest different systems? I can't imagine it's the world's most attractive pitch to try someone's homebrew pet project, but I also think this one stands up. If so, how or where do I find them?  Again, I'm keen to hand off the entire system to another GM with his/her own players, observe, and be available in whatever capacity becomes necessary. I'd consider this the next step after GMing playtests myself. And I'd be looking specifically for an online venue, as being based in New Zealand doesn't lend itself to large-scale conventions or the like.
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I'm a Java developer by trade. I was 'brought-up' in what you could call best practices. Then I took my current job. I had a choice between the Java/SOA team, and the ERP team. I was told that joining the ERP team would give me the best insight into how the business operates (not in terms of technology, but in terms of business.) So I went with ERP.  I found a system with over 4 million lines of "Progress 4GL" code (since renamed to Openedge ABL, because "4GLs sound bad") code, spread out around about 11000 files. The best part is, no file exists more than one folder down. So you have about 50 folders, each with 300-400 files a piece in them. Luckily, many of the files haven't been touched in over 7 years, and many of them are deprecated (but we don't delete them from version control "just in case." Don't even get me started on that one.) So there's really only about 1.5 million lines of code we'd actually have to test. "Only."  I could go on and on about the poor practices of the system. The bottom line was for years, developers had no option to say no. It was "gimme gimme gimme," combined with a lot of contractors moving in and out. Now, they want to clean up their act.  One of the first things I suggested was testing. They said, basically "we've been wanting to do testing for years, but we don't really know where to start." The business logic and database access are baked into the UI. (I'd say GUI, but it's not graphical, it's on a mainframe. Even the order-entry people telnet in.)  So this is pretty much a worst case scenario. Millions of lines of code. Over a billion dollars in annual sales running through the system, so it's not going to get a re-write (obviously "it works as it is.") No object orientation. No formal or automated tests. Our testers are also the ones who write the specs (which biases them toward "pushing the project through.")  I'm getting pretty desperate. I'm even willing to write whatever testing frameworks (there isn't much for Openedge in open source frameworks) we need on my spare time. I'm convinced it will pay for itself quite quickly. Where can we start? Has anyone here come across a similar project (even if smaller in scale) and if so, how did you cope with and overcome this?  Update: I've had a chat with my manager, and I have approval to draw up a spec/timeline for creating a test harness. At first, I heard this: "What we really need to do is write some tests." to which I responded "Having tests won't really help us if we don't have a way to run them. I've been looking into ProUnit (the old name for OEUnit) and think it will work for us." "We should write some tests using it." It took about 10 minutes of repeating this for him to realize it was not as simple as downloading the library and "using it." But, approval to write a spec to create a test harness is a start! Thanks guys for all your input!
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Can anyone recommend some books that are considered to be standard references for classical (frequentist) statistics? IE, fairly comprehensive, and also, been around for a while so that typos and mistakes in formulas had a chance to be checked and corrected
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Obviously the first tester group would be your own group. But beyond that? It would seem to make sense to have at least more than one group test out your game, as different groups want different things and play differently. Fresh eyes find different bugs, etc. etc.  Are there resources out there to help aspiring game designers without a lot of contacts find people willing and eager to test out their game?  Or is this in essence a "" issue?  To clarify my own situation:  I have the mechanics finished. The setting is still under development, but in accordance with the motto "fail faster" I want to go ahead and test the mechanics (in a different setting for now) to see if they work and are fun or if I need to go back to the drawing board. I have a sort-of group, but I don't know them very well and they don't meet often, and so I'm not excited about the prospect of presenting the mechanics to them right now (as I'm sure there are a dozen issues I've overlooked). Also, I'd like to test the game (including the setting, later) on more than one group, as mentioned above. I've put out some feelers among my current friends and acquaintances, but nobody's really been excited about playtesting or even really giving in-depth feedback, and I don't want to be that person who's always shoving their project in your face. I'm willing to run something online as well. I'm also interested in having others run a game without me present, and giving me their feedback.  Also, I'm looking for something of a guide-type answer that might help someone besides just me.
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The blog post  sheds a little light on how the current process for making changes on Stack Exchange works.  Today, our research process might look something like this for a high-impact, high-cost project.     What's our current research approach? Strategy (Survey; User interview; Comparative site analysis; Historical context research; Data analysis), Design (User interviews), Build (User interviews), Ship (Survey; A/B tests; Meta feedback)  And later on it says:  Meta feedback. We monitor Meta for bug reports and small usability/copy issues after shipping changes to the site.  Now, as was mentioned in the blog post, this is a marked departure from how things worked in the past.   What was our past research approach? Strategy (Meta feedback), Design (Meta feedback), Build (Meta feedback), Ship (Experiments)  Before, every stage of the process was simply &quot;Meta feedback&quot;. Now, the Meta feedback has been relegated to... bug reports and usability issues. Please consider gathering Meta feedback earlier in the process. Meta feedback is important.  Now, as an avid Meta user, I may be biased. However, Meta represents the most engaged users - the ones who have been here for years in most cases, often current or former moderators on the network, and those who are, most importantly, the ones that the site most heavily relies on for moderation. Meta feedback represents the feedback of those most engaged users. The feedback of your most engaged users, especially on a &quot;high impact&quot; project, is important. Those users are in the best position to tell you how it well affect their use of the site as someone who uses it very regularly, and they may let you know about something that is very important to them but less so to other people. I'm thinking of cases such as the incident where the Worldbuilding.SE robot, Slartibotfast, was going to be removed due to the design changes to the site. Due to  from those most invested in the community, the robot was saved and an important part of the site identity was preserved. Journeyman Geek put it nicely in :  I'd also like to point out that, well, the designer is not going to have the same grasp of a site's &quot;uniqueness&quot; as someone who has been on it a while will have.  As I mentioned before, this is a marked departure from how SE worked in the past. You are taking a group who has, for ten years+, been deeply involved in every stage of a change, and suddenly telling them &quot;you're only giving feedback after it's done and we won't be making any big changes because of your feedback. Sorry!&quot;  That's not going to go over well. Especially in the current climate of the community having broadly lost trust in the company, removing their feedback from any changes is only going to serve to further deteriorate any remaining trust.  On the other hand, including them in the process and working with the community will massively help improve trust and relations between the engaged community and the company. We, the Meta community, are the people most invested in these sites. The way our feedback is treated should reflect that. Please consider gathering Meta feedback earlier in the process for making &quot;high-impact&quot; changes.
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Question:  Are there any guidelines, sources, or examples of good practices for maintaining theorist's research notebook?  Motivation and context:  Maintaining a  is a much advised (if not a vital) tool for doing research. Many do that nowadays also in . While the methods for writing and maintaining a labbook might differ in details, in "dirty-hands" (no offense!) experimental, or field disciplines, the basics are relatively straightforward and clear. The advice tends to boil down to keep a labbook per single topic one works on and then record all the experiments and thoughts related to those experiments into the notebook. Simplifying a lot, in the end, the researcher (team) would compile a paper from the notes in the notebook.  Now situation of a researcher in a more theoretical discipline is strikingly different. Usually one engages in research on several topics at the same time. The problems a researcher works on are often intertwined and one's view on them changes over time, often merging originally separate streams of thought into a single one, or vice-versa. The work revolves not around experiments which would have a clear objective, but rather around currently prepared papers and then "a cloud of ideas". In summary, theorist's workstyle tends to be very non-linear. Maintaining some kind of a notebook is still a good thing, if for nothing else, then for not forgetting about stuff. My question is about how to go about doing it.  I am after a practical tool helping me to archive my thought process for long-term, as well as efficiently manage and keep an overview of the evolution of the several interacting topics I engage in.
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I'm thinking of live production sites here, where there is a continuous community or much content being updated, sort of like a newspaper site or community site (the one I work at is a healthcare improvement company) and we have news articles, programs and so on.  While the underlying code is tested and released there are often production issues that come up, maybe certain pages stop working, style sheets suddenly don't appear like they did due to a service patch or some tweak done to improve production security or performance.  There is Acceptance Testing for when a deployment goes out to make sure things work right, Regression Testing to make sure nothing has been broken since previous releases.  Considering we've done these types of tests and things are working fine what would you call testing, or checking, the site to make sure things still work fine?  To be sure new pages are being crawled for search indexing?  To check that newly added pages are using plug-ins correctly?  Or so on.  My manager and I were discussing some issues that have cropped up and decided we needed to do something like this, but then to sort of note it in our status reports we didn't really have a name for it.  Anyone done this and have a term that might be good?  Or would you consider it covered by something like Continuous Acceptance Testing or some such term?
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I now and then see :     first hit after typing "difference between stub and mock " into google: martinfowler.com/articles/mocksArentStubs.html Can you explain why I am googling for you?   imho all programming questions should be welcome, even if they are very easy to find by googling. To be the #1 one place, SO should contain answers for ALL programming questions. Or am I wrong?
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I'm looking for the Book that explains the essentials of user interface and user experience design.   I read  and  from O'Reilly. I think they are very good but, I'm still looking for the one.  Please provide your recommendation and why it stands as the essential reference.
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How to implement Unit Test at Unity3D.   I wonder if it would be possible to extend the Unity editor to have some sort of testing framework in it.    Is there any guideline to implement it? Any reference like book, blog? Any working example or project?