Skip to main content

Unit Tests fairy tale

By
A few weeks ago I had an interesting discussion with a college that is working in another company. I will try may a short summary of their story.

Why?
Because I was shocked to find out that…. unit tests are written only to give the team something to do.

THE story
They had to develop for one of their client a web application. They had a team of 4-5 people that worked on the project for 2 years and a half. In this period of time, they didn’t written NO unit tests.
After this period of time, the development part ended and monitoring and supported phase started. The team reduce two 2 people that started to make bug fixing, adding small new features. Things like that, normal tasks for this state of a software product.
Because the two members of the team didn’t had enough load a bright ideas came from the ‘God’.
When you don’t have issues or tasks in the queue, start writing unit test.
Of course, unit tests helped them to discover issues in the application. On top of this, they realize that a part of the system cannot be tested because deferent components are too coupled between each other and started to do refactoring.

Good/Bad parts
The good part is that they started in the end to add also unit tests to the system. This is a good thing, especially for that 2 developers. For them, that was the first moment when they realized that Unit Tests can help you, they are not only a waste of time.
On the other hand, even if you don’t cover all your code with unit tests, you should at least cover the most critical part of the system with unit tests.
Also I have a personal RULE that to follow all the time (backend):
When I have an issues or a bug in the system I will NEVER try to fix it until I did not replicate it using a unit test. 
Why? When you are able to reproduce a problem in a unit test, this means that you were able to isolate the use case, understand the problem and not the least REPRODUCE it in a controlled environment. This can be hard in a complex system but this is another story.

In conclusion I would like to say only one thing:
Write unit tests starting with development phase.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Database Modernization Matters for AI

By
  When companies transition to the cloud, they typically begin with applications and virtual machines, which is often the easier part of the process. The actual complexity arises later when databases are moved. To save time and effort, cloud adoption is more of a cloud migration in an IaaS manner, fulfilling current, but not future needs. Even organisations that are already in the cloud find that their databases, although “migrated,” are not genuinely modernised. This disparity becomes particularly evident when they begin to explore AI technologies. Understanding Modernisation Beyond Migration Database modernisation is distinct from merely relocating an outdated database to Azure. It's about making your data layer ready for future needs, like automation, real-time analytics, and AI capabilities. AI needs high throughput, which can be achieved using native DB cloud capabilities. When your database runs in a traditional setup (even hosted in the cloud), in that case, you will enc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cloud Myths: Migrating to the cloud is quick and easy (Pill 2 of 5 / Cloud Pills)

By
The idea that migration to the cloud is simple, straightforward and rapid is a wrong assumption. It’s a common misconception of business stakeholders that generates delays, budget overruns and technical dept. A migration requires laborious planning, technical expertise and a rigorous process.  Migrations, especially cloud migrations, are not one-size-fits-all journeys. One of the most critical steps is under evaluation, under budget and under consideration. The evaluation phase, where existing infrastructure, applications, database, network and the end-to-end estate are evaluated and mapped to a cloud strategy, is crucial to ensure the success of cloud migration. Additional factors such as security, compliance, and system dependencies increase the complexity of cloud migration.  A misconception regarding lift-and-shits is that they are fast and cheap. Moving applications to the cloud without changes does not provide the capability to optimise costs and performance, leading to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills)

By
Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills) The idea that moving to the cloud reduces the costs is a common misconception. The cloud infrastructure provides flexibility, scalability, and better CAPEX, but it does not guarantee lower costs without proper optimisation and management of the cloud services and infrastructure. Idle and unused resources, overprovisioning, oversize databases, and unnecessary data transfer can increase running costs. The regional pricing mode, multi-cloud complexity, and cost variety add extra complexity to the cost function. Cloud adoption without a cost governance strategy can result in unexpected expenses. Improper usage, combined with a pay-as-you-go model, can result in a nightmare for business stakeholders who cannot track and manage the monthly costs. Cloud-native services such as AI services, managed databases, and analytics platforms are powerful, provide out-of-the-shelve capabilities, and increase business agility and innovation. H...
Post a Comment
Read more