Have you ever felt like you “should” be writing tests for your code, but not really known where to start? Have you looked for testing resources and been swamped by tens of subtly different test-driven development tutorials? Do you feel vague guilt about not following “best practices,” but not enough to get over the hump and figure out how to get started?

This talk will fill in some of the gaps between “draw a circle” and “draw the rest of the owl” and show you a more effective way to get started with automated testing. You'll learn how to meet yourself where you are right now, and develop your skills bit by bit. Once you get started, you'll find that writing tests simplifies your work so that you can improve your code, reduce debugging time and duplicated work, and eliminate that vague nagging guilt.

This talk will include:

Tests written in the wild, before your very eyes! Mistakes may happen! You will see the recovery as well. How to get at the fear of getting started and making mistakes. Ways to start small and work on incremental progress - after all, testing ten percent of your code is infinitely better than testing none of it. Suggestions for ways to continue growing as a writer of tests - without sorting through that list of tutorials.