Verifying the behavior of a software system against the expected behavior of that system.
124
votes
46answers
37k views
Does giving a developer a slower development machine result in faster/more efficient code?
Suppose I give my developers a screaming fast machine. WPF-based VS2010 loads very quickly. The developer then creates a WPF or WPF/e application that runs fine on his box, but much slower in the ...
62
votes
10answers
5k views
Is there a reason that tests aren't written inline with the code that they test?
I've been reading a bit about Literate Programming recently, and it got me thinking... Well-written tests, especially BDD-style specs can do a better job at explaining what code does than prose does, ...
61
votes
16answers
5k views
When is unit testing inappropriate or unnecessary? [duplicate]
It seems to be generally assumed (on Stack Overflow at least) that there should always be unit tests, and they should be kept up to date. But I suspect the programmers making these assertions ...
58
votes
27answers
5k views
Why to let / not let developers test their own work
I want to gather some arguments as to why letting a developer testing his/her own work as the last step before the product goes into production is a bad idea, because unfortunately, my place of work ...
58
votes
21answers
5k views
“It was working yesterday, I swear!” What can you do?
When you arrive in the morning, you find that your software does not work anymore, even though it did when you left yesterday evening.
What do you do? What do you check first? What do you do to stop ...
53
votes
18answers
3k views
Why does TDD work?
Test-driven development (TDD) is big these days. I often see it recommended as a solution for a wide range of problems here in Programmers SE and other venues. I wonder why it works.
From an ...
45
votes
12answers
3k views
New to TDD. Should I avoid private methods now?
I'm just now learning TDD. It's my understanding that private methods are untestable and shouldn't be worried about because the public API will provide enough information for verifying an object's ...
41
votes
19answers
2k views
How come compilers are so reliable?
We use compilers on a daily basis as if their correctness is a given, but compilers are programs too, and can potentially contain bugs. I always wondered about this infallible robustness. Have you ...
39
votes
10answers
3k views
How should I test randomness?
Consider a method to randomly shuffle elements in an array. How would you write a simple yet robust unit test to make sure that this is working?
I've come up with two ideas, both of which have ...
39
votes
8answers
2k views
Does software testing methodology rely on flawed data?
It’s a well-known fact in software engineering that the cost of fixing a bug increases exponentially the later in development that bug is discovered. This is supported by data published in Code ...
38
votes
14answers
2k views
How to get better at testing your own code
I am a relatively new software developer, and one of the things I think I should improve is my ability to test my own code. Whenever I develop a new functionality, I find it really difficult to follow ...
37
votes
11answers
5k views
What are the disadvantages of automated testing?
There are a number of questions on this site that give plenty of information about the benefits that can be gained from automated testing. But I didn't see anything that represented the other side of ...
36
votes
6answers
2k views
How to deal with static utility classes when designing for testability
We are trying to design our system to be testable and in most parts developed using TDD. Currently we are trying to solve the following problem:
In various places it is necessary for us to use static ...
35
votes
10answers
3k views
(Why) is it important that a unit test not test dependencies?
I understand the value of automated testing and use it wherever the problem is well-specified enough that I can come up with good test cases. I've noticed, though, that some people here and on ...
34
votes
11answers
1k views
How is software used in critical life-or-death systems tested?
An airplane, as opposed to, for example, a website, is a system where any failure in certain systems is completely unacceptable, since errors in e.g. flight monitoring can cause the autopilot to ...
33
votes
14answers
2k views
If you had two projects with the same specification and only one was developed using TDD how could you tell?
I was asked this question in an interview and it has been bugging me ever since.
You have two projects, both with the same specification but only one of these projects was developed using Test ...
31
votes
9answers
2k views
How baby are your baby-steps in TDD?
Today we were training TDD and found the following point of misunderstanding.
The task is for the input "1,2" return sum of numbers which is 3. What I have written (in C#) was:
numbers = ...
31
votes
9answers
2k views
Are programmers bad testers?
I know this sounds a lot like other questions which have already being asked, but it is actually slightly different. It seems to be generally considered that programmers are not good at performing the ...
27
votes
11answers
2k views
Do I need to test everything?
I'm going to start my first real project in Ruby on Rails, and I'm forcing myself to write TDD tests. I don't see real advantages in writing tests, but since it seems very important, I'll try.
Is it ...
27
votes
10answers
1k views
Should developers be responsible for tests other than unit tests, if so which ones are the most common?
I am currently working on a rather large project, and I have used JUnit and EasyMock to fairly extensively unit test functionality. I am now interested in what other types of testing I should worry ...
27
votes
15answers
330 views
Staying Relevant As a Programmer
I am interested in hearing how various people remain in the Software Engineering industry for so long in their careers. I am at a crossroads myself as I have worked with Network Engineering, ...
26
votes
19answers
3k views
Is Software Testing Really Needed?
I'm a student working on my B.E(CS) and my question is the following:
Is testing in the software field needed?
If we create a software with great care, then why should we test?
After testing can ...
25
votes
8answers
1k views
Should a developer also act as a tester?
We're a scrum team of 3 developers, 1 designer, the scrum master, and the product owner. However, we don't have official tester in our team. A problem that is always with us, is that, testing the ...
25
votes
5answers
1k views
Why is it often said that the test cases need to be made before we start coding? [duplicate]
Why is it often said that the test cases need to be made before we start coding?
What are its pros and what the cons if we don't listen to this advice?
Moreover, does that advice refer to black box ...
24
votes
7answers
809 views
Is a programmer supposed to be self-sufficient?
At my current workplace, we don't have any testers, the rationale for that from the management being: "if we had testers, you wouldn't test your own code at all". This kind of thinking seems to be ...
23
votes
3answers
1k views
What is the term for a 'decoy' feature or intentional bug? [closed]
I have forgotten a slang programming term. This thing is an intentional bug or a decoy feature used as a distraction. An example usage, "Hey Bob, QA is doing a review today. Put a $THING into the ...
23
votes
11answers
1k views
Is it possible to write software that doesn't need to be continually modified?
I have written a lot of software in many different languages, and I've also "written" hardware for use with FPGAs using Verilog and VHDL.
I tend to enjoy writing hardware more than software, and I ...
22
votes
5answers
870 views
Testing multi-threaded race conditions
Reading the comments to this answer, specifically:
Just because you can't write a test doesn't mean it's not broken. Undefined behaviour which usually happens to work as expected (C and C++ are ...
22
votes
14answers
920 views
Is software testing actually done on professional projects?
I've been involved with many projects in several companies because I've been a developer for a long time and I'm a contractor.
I estimate that less than 20% of projects are methodically tested. With ...
21
votes
11answers
1k views
Why it is necessary to to test my iPhone app on actual iPhone device
I developed one application for iPhone and now I want it on App Store. So many my iOS geek friends told me to test it on actual device i.e. on iPhone.
So I wonder that why it is necessary to to test ...
21
votes
7answers
2k views
Best book, articles and literature on unit testing [closed]
In my battle to introduce unit testing in my workgroup, I find a lot of people that have little to none knowledge of the concept. Can you suggest:
best articles or tutorials for quickly introducing ...
20
votes
14answers
2k views
When is it okay to ship a product with a known bug?
When is it okay to ship a product with a known bug?
19
votes
7answers
685 views
Should I test inherited methods?
Suppose I have a class Manager derived from a base class Employee, and that Employee has a method getEmail() that is inherited by Manager. Should I test that the behaviour of a manager's getEmail() ...
19
votes
7answers
3k views
Automated unit testing, integration testing or acceptance testing
TDD and unit testing seems to be the big rave at the moment. But it is really that useful compared to other forms of automated testing?
Intuitively I would guess that automated integration testing is ...
18
votes
9answers
1k views
What should come first: testing or code review?
I'm quite new to programming design patterns and life cycles and I was wondering, what should come first, code review or testing, regarding that those are done by separate people?
From the one side, ...
18
votes
7answers
1k views
TDD/Tests too much an overhead/maintenance burden?
So you've heard it many times from those who do not truly understand the values of testing. Just to start things out, I'm a follower of Agile and Testing...
I recently had a discussion about ...
18
votes
4answers
729 views
Unit testing best practices for a unit testing newbie
In recent years, I have only written small components for people in larger projects or small tools. I have never written a unit test and it always seems like learning how to write them and actually ...
17
votes
11answers
945 views
At what point would you drop some of your principles of software development for the sake of more money?
I'd like to throw this question out there to interestingly see where the medium is.
I'm going to admit that in my last 12 months, I picked up TDD and a lot of the Agile values in software ...
17
votes
8answers
875 views
What are the disadvantages of writing code before writing unit tests?
I have always seen the recommendation that we should first write unit tests and then start writing code. But I feel that going the other way is much more comfortable (for me) - write code and then the ...
17
votes
4answers
748 views
Do unit tests sometimes break encapsulation?
I very often hear the following: "If you want to test private methods, you'd better put that in another class and expose it."
While sometimes that's the case and we have a hiding concept inside our ...
17
votes
4answers
575 views
Should we always unit test bugs when correcting them?
When correcting bugs, it is encouraged where I work to first write a test that fails with the given bug, and then to fix the code until the test passes.
This follows TDD practices, and is supposed to ...
17
votes
3answers
934 views
Are asserts or unit tests more important?
Both asserts and unit tests serve as documentation for a codebase, and a means of discovering bugs. The main differences are that asserts function as sanity checks and see real inputs, whereas unit ...
16
votes
4answers
1k views
Why is test driven development missing from Joel's Test?
I was reading this blog by Joel Spolsky about 12 steps to better code. The absence of Test Driven Development really surprised me. So I want to throw the question to the Gurus. Is TDD not really worth ...
16
votes
6answers
812 views
How to explain the value of unit testing
I want to introduce the concept of unit tests (and testing in general) to my co-workers; right now there are no tests at all and things are tested by actually performing the tasks via the UI to see ...
16
votes
2answers
609 views
How do people maintain their test suite?
In particular, I'm curious about the following aspects:
How do you know that your test cases are wrong (or out-of-date) and needed to be repaired (or discarded)? I mean, even if a test case became ...
15
votes
5answers
2k views
What are the key points of Working Effectively with Legacy Code?
I've seen the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code recommended a few times. What are the key points of this book?
Is there much more to dealing with legacy code than adding unit/integration ...
15
votes
5answers
858 views
How to test software that burns CDs without wasting CDs?
I want to write an application that can be used to burn CDs (music). I know I should test it with real CDs anyway, but I don't want to do this every time I make a small change. But I do want to know ...
15
votes
9answers
1k views
Are too many assertions code smell?
I've really fallen in love with unit testing and TDD - I am test infected.
However, unit testing is normally used for public methods. Sometimes though I do have to test some assumptions-assertions ...
15
votes
11answers
1k views
What problem does automated user interface testing solve?
We are currently investigating automated user interface testing (we currently do automated unit and integration testing).
We've looked at Selenium and Telerik and have settled on the latter as the ...
15
votes
5answers
681 views
How are mock objects commonly misused?
I read an article recently which said that mock objects are often misunderstood and misused. Are there any clear mocking anti-patterns which I can look out for?
