3 ms·
I wonder if the split between pro/anti unit testing comes from folks in traditional developer positions vs startups (since there is a decent mix of both here).
by stevenwei 16y ago
I wonder if the split between pro/anti unit testing comes from folks in traditional developer positions vs startups (since there is a decent mix of both here).
As a pure developer working on an established codebase, the benefits of automated testing are quite clear, especially if you have paying customers and the cost of failure is high.
But as a startup, every extra line of test code you write slows you down from launching, and the most important thing at this point is launching and figuring out whether you actually have a market for your product.
After all, what's the point of having 100% test coverage for a product that no one wants to use?
It's also entirely likely that you're going to end up throwing large sections of your codebase out as you pivot towards something else.
Here's the way I see it:
It's rather pointless to have 100% test coverage of a product that no one is using, but it's also dangerous to have 0% coverage of a product with live, paying customers.
Intelligent developers will have the find the right balance between the two (as it shifts over time).
- eridev 16y agoWhile it is true that a start up needs to get a product or prototype up and running as quickly as possible once they have something working, it would be devastating for the program to stop working soon afterwards so even thought the startup company will not be spending time testing until they finish a prototype it would be in their best interest to generate some automatic unit tests as soon as the prototype is working so that the current state can be captured and future regressions can be detected.Check this out: http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/technologies/unit_testing.jsp?itemId=326 http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/technologies/unit_testing.jsp?it...
- regularfry 16y agoIf you're ever intending to pivot, chances are that there's going to be a refactoring involved, just as much as you're likely to throw things away. I have difficulty seeing how that's going to be quick and easy without either a rock-solid type system, good test coverage, awesome IDE support, or all three.