Testing and development
One of the many ways these unit tests can help is when debugging application problems. When each unit seems to work in isolation, any remaining problems will often be the result of an improperly used interface between components. When searching for the root cause of a problem, a suite of passing tests acts as a set of signposts, directing the developer into the wilderness of untested features in the borderlands between components.
When a problem is found, the cause is often one of the following:
- Someone writing a new class failed to understand an interface with an existing class and used it incorrectly. This indicates a need for a new unit test to reflect the right way to use the interface. This new test should cause the new code to fail its expanded test suite. An integration test is also helpful, but not as important as the new unit test focused on interface details.
- The interface was not spelled out in enough detail, and both parties...
