Write Tests

Another blog post based on my Testing Anti-Patterns Talk

The most common testing anti-pattern seems to be not writing them to begin with. In my experience not writing tests is rarely a technical problem, instead its usually a people problem. People problems tend to be hard to solve but spending the time to fix them is worth it.

Not Writing Tests

People have a lot of excuses for not writing tests. Some of my favorites:

• I don’t know how to write tests
• I don’t have enough time to write tests. This project is already behind schedule.
• I want to write tests but my boss won’t let me.

Let me go through these one by one.

I don’t know how to write tests

Its okay if you don’t know how to write tests. Today is a great day to learn. Every language I’ve used has a test framework. Find one for your language and start reading the documentation that’s usually enough to get you started. If you need more help there are lots of blogs, talks, books on automated testing that can teach you basic concepts and give you ideas for structuring your tests.

I don’t have enough time to write tests.

This quote from DocOnDev summarize exactly why not having enough time to write tests is absurd.

Your tests are your safety net. They help ensure your code does what you want. They make sure you aren’t breaking existing code. And if you do TDD/BDD writing your tests can help you design your algorithms and focus on one problem at a time. When you are short on time is exactly when you need your tests to help you out.

I want to write tests but my boss won’t let me.

I’ve been in this situation before and it is tough. I’ve found that you can often chip away at these type of objections piece by piece. Start with a single test in a place with clear benefit. For example, write a test to ensure a production bug is truly fixed or a test against a commonly broken user scenario. Enlist the help of your QA team (if you have one) to advocate for unit tests. Spend downtime back filling tests against important features. As your boss sees the benefit that tests offer they may come around.

So go forth and write tests.