Automated tests for software

[mtbc]

I have known for many years that I enjoy devising software solutions to difficult problems, then implementing and demonstrating them. A more recent discovery for me is that I enjoy writing automated tests for the software I write. I wonder if this is partly because I like writing code when I have a good understanding of what is going on and, having implemented code and got it appearing to work, mostly I already know how to write tests for it and can then just get on with that productively.

Agile purists may ask, weren't the tests already written? Not all of us get to work in such a shielded environment. When a deadline is pressing and another developer is made more productive by my piece already working, even buggily, then I'll get off the critical path as soon as I can. When I am proposing projects to wealthy, patient customers then I build the test-writing into every task on the chart, but I have not been in that enviable position for years now.

Comments

[mtbc]

Yeah, I sure hadn't heard of it for many years now, these days beyond the SQL it seems to all be Power BI and document stores and such, but it's very satisfying to deliver something significant using agreeable technologies, and often the older ones were nicer to use!

[thewayne]

I never got in to Power BI stuff as it wasn't tech that the government entities that I worked for were interested in.  They tended to already be invested in Peoplesoft-type things and had their consultants outside of IT, so I just sat back and did my server wrangling.  And now I'm just coasting towards retirement and learning the stuff that I want to learn for my own interests and pleasures.

[mtbc]

That indeed sounds good. My retirement's quite some way off yet, at least judging by the state of my net worth and pension savings. (-: