googletesting: Testing on the Toilet: Risk-Driven Testing

Testing on the Toilet: Risk-Driven Testing

Friday, May 30, 2014

by Peter ArrenbrechtThis article was adapted from a Google Testing on the Toilet (TotT) episode. You can download a printer-friendly version of this TotT episode and post it in your office. We are all conditioned to write testswe no longer question why we write themTests are a means to an end:reduce the key risksget the biggest bang for the buck“We built a new debugging aid. We wrote unit, integration, and UI tests. We were ready to launch.”

Outstanding practice. Missing the mark.

Our key risks were that we'd corrupt our data or bring down our servers for the sake of a debugging aid. None of the tests addressed this, but they gave a false sense of safety and “being done”.
We stopped the launch.“We wanted to turn down a feature, so we needed to alert affected users. Again we had unit and integration tests, and even one expensive end-to-end test.”

Standard practice. Wasted effort.

The alert was so critical it actually needed end-to-end coverage for all scenarios. But it would be live for only three releases. The cheapest effective test? Manual testing before each release.A Better Approach: Risks First think about testingDo this at the startWrite them downstandard practice remains a good idea in most casesJust rememberThe bang is what countsmaximize it

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Testing on the Toilet: Risk-Driven Testing

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