What comes next after TDD katas?

What comes next after TDD katas?  UI Testing?  Mocks?  Design Patterns?

I’ve been doing TDD katas and dojos for a while now, and I think I’ve learned the first lesson.  I know the cadence of “break it, fix it, refactor”.  I understand Baby Steps and The Simplest Thing That Could Possible Work.  I get the importance of test choice in guiding the evolution of design.

So what’s my next lesson?  What’s the next thing the katas and dojos can teach me?  Maybe I need to figure out how to test UIs, and how to make testable UIs. The Humble Dialog Box may provide insight and direction there.  A coworker suggested that I need to learn mocks, maybe JMock or RhinoMocks.  I think there’s a kata in there somewhere.  I’ve tried the Publish/Subscribe example from JMock, but that feels too simple, a Hello World of JMock.  What’s a more complex kata that needs mocks to solve?  Or maybe I need to find a way to incorporate Design Patterns into my solutions.  So far I’ve evolved very simple designs, so they haven’t needed Design Patterns.

So what’s the next lesson to learn from code katas?  I know there’s a lesson in there somewhere, and I feel like I’m on the verge of learning it.  What is that lesson?

Tags: code kata, coding dojo, deliberate practice, design patterns, mock object, software development, TDD, UI testing