On Unit Testing Updates

 I have been reading about four or five posts a day on unit testing, an obsession that has persisted for a long time. I've moved beyond the technical and practical considerations of unit testing frameworks and have finished debating whether to use JUnit, Mockito, or Karma. Now, I am more intrigued by the psychology of unit testing—who engages in it, who enjoys it, and who dislikes it? Unit testing is one of those concepts that are easy to learn but hard to master.

For example, many people play chess when they are young but remain poor players throughout their lives. I am part of that majority. I have never dedicated hours to playing chess or attempting to master it. I don't recognize common patterns or have a well-developed endgame. I simply play with a basic understanding of the rules.

Following good unit testing practices in your software development team is a lot like playing chess: easy to learn but difficult to master. However, there are significant differences—chess is a game, while coding is not, and people take software development very seriously. If you don't master unit testing but can still complete your job tasks, some might argue that this is an acceptable risk in the world of software development.

Why should one master chess or unit testing? If developers can manage without unit testing, why suggest it? Some developers simply don't want to invest the energy to master the practice, and in some development environments, there is no strict requirement to do so.


See full blog post here ...


https://berlinbrowndev.blogspot.com/2017/04/on-unit-testing-java-tdd-for-developers.html

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