Where did you learn to unit test? How did you learn?

Steven Taschuk staschuk at telusplanet.net
Thu May 1 22:35:03 EDT 2003


Quoth Christopher Blunck:
  [...]
> Our QA manager has been influential in coming on board with the unit
> testing initiative I've proposed.  But this isn't always the case (QA
> engineers sometimes do not recognize the value of unit tests).  I'm
> interested in what you've done to overcome that situation.

I've never been in that situation, but I have a speculation about
why QA engineers might not like unit tests: the old "you're
automating my job away!" problem.  The more reliable the code is
before it reaches the QA folk, the less they have to do, the fewer
people they need, and the more layoffs are likely in the future.
This might be the thinking, anyway.  (Note that this theory can
also explain why the QA manager likes tests.)

The main counterargument from my point of view is an oldie but a
goodie: automating task X frees up people to do task Y.  In the
case of QA engineers, task Y might be doing higher-order quality
assurance, such as evaluating the user interface for simplicity,
consistency, ease of use, etc..  Or task Y might be product
development (for the more programming-minded QA engineers).

But people usually don't take kindly to (feeling like they're)
being forced into changing what they do for a living.  And in
practice lots of organizations which find they have too many
people doing task X will indeed start laying people off rather
than moving them into other areas.  Foolish, imho, but common;
like it or not, these are real issues, not to be brushed aside.

-- 
Steven Taschuk                               staschuk at telusplanet.net
"[T]rue greatness is when your name is like ampere, watt, and fourier
 -- when it's spelled with a lower case letter."      -- R.W. Hamming





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