Your Code as a Crime Scene, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Avoid the Automated-Test Death March

Over the past decade, I have seen way too many test automation attempts gone wrong. If you run into the warning signs we examined in the previous section, be sure to run a coupling analysis on your test code and combine it with a hotspot analysis to identify the issues you need to address.

But don’t wait for warning signs. Once our tests start slowing us down, it’s time-consuming to get back on track. There’s much you can do upfront. To illustrate the point, let’s look at code health, the concept we discussed back in ​Know Why Half the Work Gets Done in Twice the Time​, but this time, use it to compare the test against the application code.

For this case study, we’re back to Spring Boot, and you see in the ...