Lasse Koskela on the importance of test code

Lasse Koskela on the importance of test code

date:Mar 18, 2011

Lasse Koskela, the author of Test Driven: Practical TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers, talks with executive editor Jan Stafford about the importance of test code just after he presented the technical session "Test Smells in Your Code Base" at TheServerSide Java Symposium.

Read the full transcript from this video below:  

Lasse Koskela on the importance of test code

Jan Stafford: Hi, this is Jan Stafford, Executive Editor of The Service
Side, behind the camera. And?

Lasse Koskela: Lasse Koskela

Jan Stafford : You just did a session on test code, and tell me, what do
you think are some of the most common problems people have in perfecting
their test code?

Lasse Koskela: So, well starting from not having tests of course, I think
that's the biggest problem I see but with code bases that have tests, I
think, the biggest problem is generally that people don't take care of
their tests. You write them once and then you leave them until they break,
and then you fix them anyway you can. I think that's the biggest problem,
so people don't really nurture their test codes.

Jan Stafford: So do you think that there's a perception that test code is not
as important as production code? And what might be wrong with that
assumption?

Lasse Koskela: I think people definitely behave that way in general. So what
happens is, you don't pay attention to the test. It's tedious, and whatever
the reason originally was, it's a vicious cycle, so it gets worse and worse
over time. I think at some point people might even use the excuse that test
code isn't as important. I think that it definitely is as important as
production code, because the test code basically documents and verifies
your code words. So if you leave it for half a year, come back, how do you know
it's correct, how do you know its working? It's a lot of effort to test
manually and it's so much easier if you develop your tests and code at the
same time, using the same methods, using the same design principles and
good practices. It makes it definitely worth it.

Jan Stafford: Thank you.

Lasse Koskela: Thank you.

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