[TIP] best strategy for retrofitting code with unit tests

[Michael Foord]

Nate Lowrie wrote:
> Ok, I have done a couple of small - medium sized projects through a
> TDD cycle and have been successful at it.  Now, we are trying to
> retrofit a large framework (Dabo) with unit tests.  It's a 3 tier
> framework with an agnostic db layer, business object/logic layer, and
> a UI layer that currently wraps WxPython.
>
> What is the best strategy for this?  Should we just adopt a TDD for
> all new code and do a refactor/red/green cycle on the existing code as
> the new code comes in?  Should we unit test the business layer only
> and resign to acceptance testing on the other 2?
>   

NB I've not had to *do* this, so my suggestion is theoretical only.

I would add acceptance tests for the higher levels as soon as you can.

I would add unit tests for code as you refactor, but apply this to all 
the layers. That should eventually get you pretty good coverage.

It is more a difficulty if you just want to retrofit tests without 
actually needing to touch a lot of the other code - but at least this 
approach will get you off the ground and you can review it.

Fuzzyman
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles.shtml