Effective Unit Testing

1.4. Summary

We’ve come a long way from the days of “cowboy coding” with programmers hacking away at code without any tests to catch them when they fall from the saddle. Developer testing and automated tests are commonplace or, if not exactly standard practice, are definitely a topic of active discussion. The value of having a thorough suite of automated tests for your code is undeniable.

In this chapter you familiarized yourself with the Law of the Two Plateaus. The first plateau is where the value programmers are getting out of their tests is limited because they already have full test coverage. But you can get further. Programmers who pay attention to the quality of their tests zoom right past the first plateau, aiming for the top. It’s one ...