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Why are we embarrassed to admit that we don't know how to write tests?

Wednesday, July 08, 2009
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Labels: Shyam Seshadri

8 comments :

  1. JohnJuly 8, 2009 at 12:17:00 PM PDT

    My experience is that making sure a design is testable inserts a constraint that helps focus on a simpler design, or one that is organized in a more straightforward way. I often have fewer interfaces and more clarity once I have focused on the issue of verifying my code.

    My conclusion at the end of this article is that you've hit the nail on the head. It is tempting to think that knowing how to code is knowing how to test. I have been writing my own tests for three years and in many ways I am just getting started. There is always more that can be removed!

    Cheers,
    John

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  2. TorstenJuly 8, 2009 at 1:07:00 PM PDT

    Thank you for that. Very true!!
    Learning how to test seems to be a never ending story.

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  3. UnknownJuly 8, 2009 at 2:37:00 PM PDT

    This is a great post! Not sure how such an idea will be taken in the developer community at large. I personally don't know many developers who think (or care) about making testable code.

    And... Misko, sorry, but did you read your post for spelling, text errors?

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  4. Pooya KhamooshiJuly 9, 2009 at 4:58:00 AM PDT

    Very good points.

    I think knowing or not knowing how to write tests is scenario-based and contextual rather than an absolute fact!

    I enjoy writing testable code and I have felt the simpler design it provides in many of my applications but at the same time I am not too concerned about it because there are tools out there e.g. TypeMock which helps you test your code without making it necessarily so called "testable".

    Whatever helps having simpler and more understandable code/design I prefer including writing testable and reusable code / proper refactoring, etc.

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  5. UnknownJuly 9, 2009 at 11:42:00 PM PDT

    You raised some very good points and I agree Developers should think in terms of testing while designing the code. I would say key integration of tester is always helpful in design phase. This way tester can think for different hooks and cases which are difficult to test in isolation.
    I would say language is not that important when thinking of testing but the actually cases. Somehow after reading this blog I felt there is a need of more white-box testing.

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  6. WimJuly 10, 2009 at 2:33:00 AM PDT

    I have to agree with Sue. I really like the post but Misko's spelling/grammar could do with some QA of its own. ;-)

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  7. Martin HJuly 10, 2009 at 3:33:00 AM PDT

    I knew the spelling/grammar police would come a visiting on this article.
    (and yes I put "a visiting" on purpose)

    However I don't thing it really matters and its a shame it gets mentioned at all.

    The main point of the main blog post is easy to make out and it's the content of the post that should be reviewed or commented on.

    As for the post I think the poster hits the nail on the head as previously said.

    A few good suggestions would be closer working with the testing and devs teams involved, and to set up peer reviews where the testers get involved at the design stage, in an ideal world before any code is written.

    Virtually all dev's want to write decent bug free code (it's a matter of pride to most of them). So I find that talking things through from a testing point of view usually sparks their interest.

    A last hint is to get the dev's to hand over their test plans to you as part of the integration/smoke tests.
    this way you get to see their test to code coverage ratio.

    PS - Great Post.

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  8. MarcoJuly 11, 2009 at 3:11:00 PM PDT

    Interesting post here. Well done.

    Dave Evans and Mike Scott here http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/open-source-dot-net/testable-software have got some interesting thoughts about testability.

    Their course on Test Driven Development, which I attended last week, is pretty impressive too.

    Keep up the good work...

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