In September 2003 I visited the friendly city of Arhus in Denmark to deliver a talk at the famous JAOO conference.  

At that time, JAOO was an established software development conference, with well-known speakers such as Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, Linda Rising, and Erich Gamma. And me.

When I arrived at the venue, a conference center on the edge of the city center, one of the organizers offered to give me a guided tour of the building. While we strolled through the center, she enthusiastically pointed out the major rooms where the conference would take place. Then all of a sudden, the organizer stopped at a wooden door in a small hallway. She opened the door respectfully and we looked in.

An ill-lit room with furniture stacked to the walls. “Do you know what happened in this room?” she asked me almost whisperingly. I shook my head. Of course, I had no idea. She continued mysteriously. “This is where during JAOO last year, Kent Beck and Erich Gamma conceptualized unit testing and conceived JUnit.”

Well, you could say that this my first introduction to unit testing.

Continued to read…