Monday, June 18, 2007 8:59 PM
A few weeks ago I
posted a rather informal survey probing for interest in creating an online community dedicated to Test Driven Development.
Now it's time to reveal the results of this informal survey. In regards to the actual survey, I had fourteen respondents, all of which answered "Yes" that they would like to participate in an online TDD community. A 100% positive response seems promising, until we look closer at the numbers: That particular post only saw about 325 views during that time which means that although 100% of those who voted decided to vote yes, a very small number actually voted at all. This doesn't particularly bode well for the amount of potential passion :)
The post also received fourteen kicks on
DotNetKicks as well as two comments, at the time of this writing. I would like to share one of those comments, courtesy of
Ian Cooper, here...
I think that this is an excellent point and a warning that should definitely be heeded. I have since subscribed to the
news group and I must say that it is quite active for a small niche community and, even more impressively, the standard of the vast majority of the content is consistently quite high.
So, what are the next steps? Well, after much deliberation I have decided to go ahead with the idea of a TDD community in what I hope will be a complement to the Yahoo newsgroup. I hope to offer a bit more dynamic discussion that forums can provide over newsgroups as well as an alternative source for TDD information. However, seeing the success and stability of the newsgroup already, I will not be pursuing this as an extremely high priority.
Translation:
it may be a few months before you see anything more on this from me.
In the meantime, I will remain open to comments and criticisms on this topic as I move forward. I also strongly encourage you to visit the Yahoo newsgroup if you're looking for a knowledgeable and open community in which to discuss the finer points of TDD.