Practical Parsimonious Testing Design

testing_principles.txt

Testing Principles:

Proving and Documenting Behaviour and Effectiveness

First Cut with the Razor:

A. Integration/Acceptance testing

  1. Acceptance testing with Capybara

  2. Integration testing

Summary:  Acceptance testing is focused on documenting and proving behaviour 
at the boundaries of the application. User stories and business rules are proven 
and documented at the time they are implemented.  Integration testing proves 
and documents the data model as well.


B. Unit testing of Object behaviour

1. Incoming Messages tested on receiver side with assertions about state
   or Proving the Public Interface

2. Outgoing Messages

  a. ignore queries

  b. Prove Command Messages:
      prove message is sent correctly
      don't care about what comes back
      use Mocks: tests of behaviour, not state

Summary: Unit testing proves and documents Object behaviour and Object modeling.

C. Testing is also about what not to test or about limiting tests

 1. Avoid Testing private methods
    a. in a pinch, o.k.
    b. factor out to new class if need to test

 Summary: Test what you need to test and no more.