Voice of the DBA

Tag: SQL Saturday

  • SQL Saturday #390 – Philadelphia Recap

    I was at SQL Saturday #390 in Philadelphia last week and it was an exciting, but short time. The event was at the end of a  five day trip for me, Seattle first and then Philadelphia, so I was tired by Saturday morning. However I enjoyed it, met lots of people, and learned a few interesting things.

    Unit Testing with SQL Server and tSQLt

    Friday I taught a pre-con event with Sebastian Meine on unit testing your T-SQL code with tSQLt. We had 9 people signed up, which was encouraging. Not a raging success, but certainly better than the 2 people that some friends had predicted. Everyone was interested in unit testing and producing better code.

    The day went well, and we ended a touch early. There were some good comments and suggestions from people on unit testing techniques, including a solution to one of our exercises that I hadn’t expected. I learned a few places need the demos to be expanded a bit, but overall it felt like a good start to teaching unit testing. I’m looking forward to trying this at a few other events in the future.

    standing in front of the class

    Better Development at SQL Saturday

    I was really only able to attend a few sessions (in addition to the one I taught) at SQL Saturday #390. However I was pleased to see that after my CI session, there was one on Continuous Delivery, and then one on Git for DBAs. Both of these topics are important, and well attended, which makes me think that more people are starting to lean towards building more engineered database development processes.

    My CI session went well. I didn’t get to show the failing CI process based on a test and more data, but I did get lots of good questions that I need to answer in the next few weeks. A few of them (for me to remember).

    • How do I get started with a small development team?
    • How do I start adding tests in an existing software project?
    • Can you demo a column rename (or table rename)?
    • Show static data flowing through the process

    It’s good to get questions, and I hope I answered them all. If I didn’t, or you need clarification, let me know.

    Once I finished, I wandered over to see Mark Wojciechowicz talk about Continuous Delivery. Mark is a consultant that’s trying to keep a CD process working at a client’s site. He’s been working at it for awhile and we talked about it Friday (he was in my class) and Saturday. It sounds like he has some good things going, and using a home grown process that works well.

    He showed some of the reasons why CD matters, especially for his client. They make lots of changes, and use a smooth process to push through bug fixes as well when there are issues with something in production. I hope he gets his deck up soon because he had some good quotes and notes in the PPT.

    I especially like his thoughts that if something hurts in software, you should do it more. That comes from Thoughworks and some of the progressive companies that are rapidly building high quality software and don’t let the problems of deployment slow them down. They tackle those issues just like others, and you should, too.

    From there I saw Justin Dearing talk about Git and DBAs. He’s a developer and tends to like the command line, but he showed how we can use Git for a VCS in the command line, but also from SSDT. That’s an interesting approach, and while I liked his message, I think some of the people there using a CVCS, like TFS, didn’t understand why Git matters. I need to write more on this as well.

    Justin had a minor issue with branching, not because he doesn’t do it well or understand it, but because he’s moving fast and talking. That’s what I am, in general, against branching. The real world moves fast, it’s easy to get caught up with some other thoughts and get lost with branching. I need to formalize my thoughts as I’ll be talking branching at DevConnections (register and come see me in September).

    Overall a good time and people seemed to really enjoy the SQL Saturday. I had about 20% of my attendees that were new, which is great. I hope to see more and more people coming to the events in the future.

  • Unit Testing in Philadelphia

    I’m helping teach a pre-conference session on Friday, June 5, 2015 at the Microsoft office in Philadelphia. This is an all day, paid for event, that looks at how you can use a framework to write unit tests for your T-SQL code. We’re the day before SQL Saturday #390 in Philadelphia

    I really believe in testing, and am trying to advocate for it in many places. I’ve delivered a testing session that has been well received at quite a few events and this is the first time I’m trying a full day training class.

    I am working with Sebastian Meine, the founder of tSQLt, to present the class. We’ve got a busy outline, looking at a variety of ways that you can write tests and use them to find problems in code. Here’s what we’re covering.

    • Introduction to Unit Testing
    • What is tSQLt?
    • Your First Test
    • Executing Tests correctly
    • Effective use of Assertions
    • Separation of Concerns
    • Testing Exceptions
    • Test Case Heuristics
    • Dealing with Test Data
    • Other Types of Testing
    • How Unit Testing fits into your Development Process

    At the end of the class, you should have some good ideas on how to build and structure tests in your own environment and be ready to start testing on Monday.

    I hope to see you there, and register today if you want to learn more about unit testing in SQL Server.

  • A Week to SQL Saturday #393 – Redmond

    Only my second SQL Saturday of the year (wow), but SQL Saturday #393 is next week in Redmond, WA. This is my first time at a SQL Saturday in Washington, though I’ve been to the area many times. I’m looking forward to the trip up with a couple days in the Seattle area and getting the chance to catch up with some friends.

    I’ll be talking tSQLt and testing at the event, and the full schedule has a lot of great sessions to choose from. If you’re in the area on May 16, 2015, I’d urge you to register and come by for the day.

    If you can’t make it, hopefully I’ll see you at another event soon.

  • Learn tSQLt and Unit Testing in Philadelphia

    SQL Saturday #390 is in Philadelphia on June 6, 2015. This is my second time attending the event, and not only am I speaking on Saturday, but I’ll be delivering information on Friday at a pre-con.

    My first SQL Saturday pre-con is taking place in Philly. I’m lucky to be asked by Sebastian Meine to co-present a day of training. We’re delivering a precon on Unit Testing in SQL Server with tSQLt. It’s available for the low price of only $99.99 now, with the price rising to $149.99 when the event begins.

    We’ll be covering quite a bit of the framework, showing you the ways in which you can write tests with examples and code that you can run that day. We’d like you to bring a laptop to write tests along with us, but we’ll have the code available later if you want to test back at the office. Here’s our agenda.

    • Introduction to Unit Testing
    • What is tSQLt?
    • Your First Test
    • Executing Tests correctly
    • Effective use of Assertions
    • Separation of Concerns
    • Testing Exceptions
    • Test Case Heuristics
    • Dealing with Test Data
    • Other Types of Testing
    • How Unit Testing fits into your Development Process

    Sebastian is the owner and developer of the tSQLt framework, which I’ve been using quite a bit over the last few years. It’s an amazing project, and really expands the ability of SQL Server developers to build better code and prevent regression issues in their applications. Quite a few SQL Server MVPs and highly successful consultants are using the framework, and I’d urge you to give it a try.

    If you’re in the Philadelphia area and want to jumpstart your testing knowledge, consider coming to our pre-con. It’s a great way to rethink how you write SQL code and put testing in place in a fairly low impact fashion.

    Register today

    Database Source Control

    If you’re in town on Thursday and want to learn about Version Controlling your databases, Redgate is also working with Ike Ellis to put on a full-day workshop covering Database Source Control. It’s $500 for the day, and you’ll get some in-depth knowledge on how to work with SQL Server code and version control as well as participate in hands-on labs that will give you the skills to implement the processes yourself. Find out more..