//-->

Ethical Software by Alex Bunardzic

August 12, 2006, 12:11 am

Not All Tests Are Created Equal

Filed under: Software, Design, Radical-simplicity — Alex Bunardzic @

I’ve received some objections to my post regarding Test Driven Development (TDD). It looks like some people got the wrong impression that I was dissing TDD. I would like to clarify my position here.

I never said that TDD is not a good way to do software design and development. I agree with TDD proponents that by practicing it, and by formulating high quality tests, one can achieve robust design and implementation. But the problem is exactly in this concept — high quality tests. What is a high quality test? What is a lousy test? Do we have well established criteria for evaluating tests?

In my opinion, not all tests are created equal. Same as you can have a developer who delivers lousy code, you will have a developer who delivers lousy tests. And if you’re expecting to arrive at a high quality design and implementation by utilizing lousy tests, you live in the fantasy land.

Testing the Tests

So the real challenge is: can we write tests for tests? Is there a way to test that the proposed tests are indeed steering us in the right direction?

In other words, why is no one advocating the ‘test the tests first’ approach?

Of course, this immediately opens up a can of worms called infinite regress. If we establish a testing procedure that will test the tests, we would then naturally want to have meta-testing procedure in order to test the tests for the original tests. And so on.

This charade can only be resolved by utilizing common-sense thinking. And for that we need high quality people. If we’re lucky to get high quality people, why not let them do what they do best — their job? If they are capable of creating high quality tests, why assume that they wouldn’t be capable of creating high quality code? After all, test are put in place for one sole reason — to enable us to arrive at the high quality code.

16 Responses to “Not All Tests Are Created Equal”

  1. Hetero handjob. Says:

    Free handjob movies.

    Handjob. Free handjob movies. Handjob gallery. Hetro handjob fanclub.

  2. Girls gone wild. Says:

    Girls gone wild free.

    College girls getting drunk and wild. Girls gone wild. Girls gone wild on webcams naked.

  3. Boobs. Says:

    Boobs.

    Giant boobs. Real boobs.

  4. Fake celebrities nude pics. Says:

    Celebrities.

    Nude female celebrities. Celebrities exposed. Nude celebrities.

  5. Pam anderson. Says:

    Pam anderson.

    Pam anderson.

  6. Pamela anderson boobs. Says:

    Pamela anderson nude.

    Pamela anderson naked. Pamela anderson nude.

  7. Jenna jameson. Says:

    Free video clips of jenna jameson.

    Jenna jameson free. Jenna jameson.

  8. Britney spears. Says:

    Britney spears photo.

    Britney spears picture. Britney spears pantyless. Britney spears. Britney spears flash. Britney spears video. Britney spears no underwear.

  9. Angelina jolie. Says:

    Angelina jolie drug problem.

    Angelina jolie and brad pitt. Angelina jolie pics naked. Angelina jolie nude. Pictures of angelina jolie. Angelina jolie.

  10. Lindsay lohan crotch shots. Says:

    Lindsay lohan naked.

    Lindsay lohan. Lindsay lohan gallery. Lindsay lohan nude. Gallery of lindsay lohan.

  11. Electro torture. Says:

    Torture galaxy.

    Cock and ball torture. Japanese horse torture.

  12. Jessica alba breast. Says:

    Jessica alba.

    Nude jessica alba. Jessica alba fakes. Jessica alba.

  13. Carmen electra. Says:

    Carmen electra naked.

    Carmen electra.

  14. Anna nicole smith nude. Says:

    Naked anna nicole smith.

    Anna nicole smith. Anna nicole uncensored.

  15. Lindsay lohan nude. Says:

    Lindsay lohan.

    Lindsay lohan. Lindsay lohan bikini. Lindsay lohan nudes. Lindsay lohan nude fakes. Lindsay lohan topless.

  16. Jessica alba. Says:

    Jessica alba gallery.

    Jessica alba nude. Jessica alba galleries. Jessica alba breast. Jessica alba.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.