AgileAttitudes Article
 
 
 

Vol 01 Issue 10- Unit Testing

  
 
Back to the list of articles Agile Attitudes Volume 1, Issue 10 Oct. 21, 2004 A free bi-weekly email newsletter Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting www.agilerules.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to Agile Attitudes, a newsletter of ideas, insights and technical tips that help people find better ways to develop software. Feel free to share this with anyone - just be sure you send or print the whole thing, including the copyright notice. Directions for managing your subscription are below. O><O><O><O><O><O See our publications page for Nancy's Embedded Systems Conference paper and accompanying slides. The URL is: http://www.agilerules.com/publications.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O Unit Testing by Ron Morsicato One of the most serious mistakes I've seen in my career is a software development team's acceptance of an attitude that unit testing has to be bypassed in order to maintain production goals, or simply that unit testing need not apply to this team because of its seasoned and deeply knowledgeable makeup. The team's management certainly will like the ideas that they could save development costs or that they have the cream of the crop working for them. After all, there's plenty of opportunity to catch bugs during acceptance testing. Invariably, the project suffers the consequences. You see, if you rely on testing on the acceptance level, you will have experienced the result of black box testing, which does not guarantee that all possible execution paths have been tested. Neither will it insure that during the execution of the software that all its internal workings remain as intended. Acceptance testing just tells you that you did not observe any software misbehavior given the inputs you provide. The failure to properly unit test software leads to a buildup of latent defects. Latent defects too often emerge after the software has been fielded, and the consequences to customers' views on the reliability of your product can be devastating. Even if the error is detect during acceptance testing, it holds up the release process, a problem that is exacerbated since is it often the case that the source of the defective behavior may not even be in the modules that were worked on prior to the release. This can stop an entire team in its tracks. Unit testing is really just part of a simple code development pattern. Recognizing this, the open source community has developed a stockpile of unit testing frameworks covering just about every programming language. Using these frameworks, most users observe that production is even increased! For a fairly inclusive list and brief description of unit testing frameworks take a look at http://testingfaqs.org/t-unit.html#cUnit. O><O><O><O><O><O More articles on Agile software topics at http://www.agilerules.com Within our company we have a sub-specialty in embedded systems. Our site has articles on embedded XP and we support a discussion list focused on the use of agile methods for building embedded software. The list signup info is at http://www.agilerules.com/mailinglists.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O To help you get started with in-depth research into Agile Attitudes topics, we have added a Library section to our web site at http://www.agilerules.com/library.phtml Order using our links and receive discounts up to 30%! O><O><O><O><O><O If you enjoyed this issue or found it useful, forward it to a friend! Help spread the word about better ways to build software. Invite your friends and colleagues to join our growing reader community at http://www.agilerules.com/mailinglists.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O Looking for a speaker for your next corporate or society meeting? We present dynamic, informative programs on topics of interest to managers and technical staff in their transition to more flexible, robust ways to create software. O><O><O><O><O><O Want to reprint this issue in your company or society newsletter? For permission to reprint any of the articles, contact us at info@agilerules.com. O><O><O><O><O><O If you would like to receive an email as soon as we know of an event in the Boston area of interest to the agile software community, you can sign up for the announcements list at http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileannounce O><O><O><O><O><O Your feedback is welcome! Send feedback to info@agilerules.com To manage your subscription: http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes O><O><O><O><O><O Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting 162 Marrett Road, Lexington MA 02421 Copyright (c) 2004 Agile Rules info@agilerules.com O><O><O><O><O><O Privacy notice: We will not release a subscriber's address to any third party for any reason. This is a strictly opt-in newsletter. No one is ever subscribed without their explicit request. </plaintext> </td id="bodytable_r1_c3_body"> </tr id="bodytable_r1"> </table id="bodytable">