[TIP] testing: why bother?

[Michael Foord]

On 23/03/2011 13:06, Alfredo Deza wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> I am about to give a presentation about testing in a couple of days 
> and the audience is in its majority a
> "we do not write tests" one :(
>
> If you had to name the single most important reason why you need to 
> write tests (or keep up with them) what
> would that reason be?
>
> You can reply with multiple ones, but I am interested in the one you 
> think is *the* mot important one.
>
> One thing to consider though is to think about the problem from their 
> perspective: "Why do I need to write tests?"
> I want to make a dent in that crippled thinking!
>
> I also posted the question in Convore but not everybody is in there, 
> plus I know that I get the best quality
> testing-related answers here :)
>
> Any feedback is *greatly* appreciated!

Here's another one:

Tests exercise units of your code - they localise and isolate code 
paths. If you have a bug you need to find and fix then having machinery 
in place to exercise just the part of your code causing the problem 
makes using a debugger so much simpler. It also makes it easier to 
reproduce bugs - you futz around varying the inputs and calls around 
just the part of the system causing the issue instead of having to 
repeat manual steps until you find it.

All the best,

Michael
>
>
> -Alfredo
>
>
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