[TIP] testing: why bother?

[Alfredo Deza]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 1:37 AM, Gregory P. Smith <greg at krypto.org> wrote:

>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 7:06 AM, Alfredo Deza <alfredodeza at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> 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?
>>
>
> What Natalia and Lars have said resonates best with me so far.
>
> Ask the audience this: Who is going to maintain the code you write in the
> long term?
>
> Often not you, the original author(s). Certainly not the you in the same
> state of mind and knowledge about the details of the code base that you have
> at the moment you originally wrote it. Write tests so that you don't have to
> keep all of that in your mind and so that other people can become productive
> quickly in that code base.
>
>
> Want more? pose this question: Have you ever jumped into a project written
> by others and needed to make changes without time to understand the entire
> system yourself?
>
> This is quite common in large projects and code bases. Without easy to run
> tests doing such changes even if they are supposed to be simple refactorings
> that change no logic is a big effort.
>
> Tests are a form of API contract, they both verify and document a set of
> specific behaviors.
>
> -gps
>
>
>> 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!
>>
>
These are *all* good answers and I really appreciate all the input from you
guys.

I finished my slides and information last night and I am presenting today.
I'm sure I will be able to pull this one off!



>
>>
>> -Alfredo
>>
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>>
>>
>
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