Introduction to Testing

Importance of testing

Testing and quality assurance in general is undervalued, often deferred, and not taken as seriously as it should be. You may have heard expressions similar to the following:

• “We don’t have time to write tests! The next release needs to launch to make sure we hit our milestone.”
• “Let’s release this new feature ASAP and write tests later.”
• “We dedicate every nth sprint to writing tests.”

There are little secrets you need to know for each of the above statements.

“We don’t have time to write tests! The next release needs to launch to make sure we hit our milestone.”

Writing tests needs to be part of the planning process and baked into everything the team does. If whoever is in charge of the roadmap does not value testing, the product is highly likely to be doomed before it even starts. This will not manifest itself right away, maybe not even in the first year or two, but once the team grows or team members leave, development velocity will come to a grinding ...