Some people have a natural aversion to the idea of testing because the word reminds them having to do exams in formal education (especially those of us who suffered from the experience!)
Don't Panic! Writing tests for your Web Application is on the opposite end of the Fun Spectrum from multiple choice tests we all know (and loathe!)
There are a number of "reasons" (excuses!) why people/teams/organizations still don't test their work.
Take your pick from the following:
- "We don't have time to write tests, we just need to get this done Yesterday!"
- "Testing takes too long and means we won't deliver as many features..."
- "Its just a small fix, we don't need to write a test..."
- "I'm a developer, I don't write tests, we need to hire a tester..."
- "If I write a test for every bit of code, then I have to update the tests when I need to change the code, so it's twice as much work..."
and, last but not least:
- "That's the way we have always done it here..."
As a comparison,
Nokia 8110
is how Mobile Phones looked in the 90's ...
How many people do you still see carrying "The Matrix Phone"
(which was all-the-rage in 1999) today?
We have better phones; shouldn't we also have better software engineering methods?
Code without tests is like a building without a foundation! One of the things you
Its only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down ...
Q: Is Test Driven Development (TDD) a silver bullet for all my software development woes?
A: No.
There is a lot more that goes into writing great software than
just having tests. But, without tests reliability is impossible.