As you will probably know from reading previous entries on this blog, I've become a convert to using Agile approaches to database development. When coupled with Continuous Integration and Test Driven Development, it can really help you to turn around database development quickly.
And it's not just developers who need to be part of this loop. Continuous Deployment and automated best practice testing can help allow DBAs to be responsive to deploying new developments, without huge amounts of extra work. The key advantage of this? You can turn around software developments more quickly - and that means you are more valuable, and your employer can do better in the market. At a the recent SQL in the City conference in London, Red Gate Software's Joint CEO Simon Galbraith gave a very impressive overview of how Agile approaches had helped Red Gate to achieve better market adoption and a product better tuned to market need by adopting Agile approaches.
The authors of the tSQLt database unit testing framework (which is what I use for database unit testing and test driven development) are running a course on how to get started. This covers everything from how to use tSQLt unit testing to write tests to how to adopt this within a CI environment and fit Agile development into the development cycle. The course follows the US tour of SQL in the City and you can find more details (and book your place!) on this website. It's not free, but should provide great business value to anyone looking to adopt Agile practices within database development, or as part of a wider development team. The course also includes a license for Red Gate's Source Control software, as well as an automation license and a discount on SQL Test - together worth $1235 - which gives you the tools necessary to get started.
It looks like a great course and one I wish had been held after the London SQL in the City event - the session that Dennis and Sebastian presented was a great introduction to tSQLt as a test framework.
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