Software testing: the ugly duckling of software development
More often than not, software testing is perceived as necessary evil by developers. Coding new features is more fun and is also often thought to require more skill than testing, which is why in many projects, senior developers are the ones to focus on the production code, while writing tests is left to the junior developers and interns. But testing code and automating things should require the same care and skill as working on your product — at least if you do not want to end up in a maintenance nightmare that tempts you on a daily basis to delete those failing tests instead of fixing them.
Another common example for software testing being disregarded is that it is often only an afterthought in project planning especially if schedules are tight.Let’s admit it: we’ve all been at a point where testing was the only thing we could skip to still keep up with our deadlines, but we all know it’s necessary. How else would we know for sure whether our code actually works?
In addition to being just a necessary evil, we also have to consider that testing is directly related to your software’s success. Without it, it’s impossible to produce a product that is fit for end users — so with that in mind, let’s take a look at how software testing evolved alongside software development best practices over the last decades, and see how a good testing strategy can ease your daily development tasks.
