Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition

Testing PL/SQL Programs

I get great satisfaction out of creating new things, and that is one of the reasons I so enjoy writing software. I love to take an interesting idea or challenge, and then come up with a way of using the PL/SQL language to meet that challenge.

I have to admit, though, that I don’t really like having to take the time to test my software (nor do I like to write documentation for it). I do it, but I don’t really do enough of it. And I have this funny feeling that I am not alone. The overwhelming reality is that developers generally perform an inadequate number of inadequate tests and figure that if the users don’t find a bug, there is no bug. Why does this happen? Let me count the ways . . .

The psychology of success and failure

We are so focused on getting our code to work correctly that we generally shy away from bad news—or from taking the chance of getting bad news. Better to do some cursory testing, confirm that everything seems to be working OK, and then wait for others to find bugs, if there are any (as if there were any doubt).

Deadline pressures

Hey, it’s Internet time! Time to market determines all. We need everything yesterday, so let’s be just like Microsoft and Netscape—release pre-beta software as production and let our users test/suffer through our applications.

Management’s lack of understanding

IT management is notorious for not really understanding the software development process. If we are not given the time and authority to write (and I ...