On 9 Sep 2008, at 14:54, Ashley Moran wrote:
On 8 Sep 2008, at 17:21, Jonathan Linowes wrote:
Here's one example: lets say my app is a specialized CMS, where
account owners can setup their own projects, pages and forms. I'd
like to run scenarios against setups that users have created.
Thinking further, wouldn't it be neat to make this a user feature,
eg via "Validate This Project" button
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion you
should just take (very) regular backups, and when a problem occurs,
isolate the situation.
Dan's export suggestion would be really useful here. In case of
data loss, you could fire up a backup version of the app, export
missing/corrupt pages, and re-import into the production environment.
This would encourage you to define a robust data format too. It
wouldn't directly lead you to catching edge cases, but it will give
you more confidence about recovering from them. And anyway, if
your tests-on-real-data throw up edge cases, they will still miss
the ones that real data doesn't exist for. So maybe being able to
say "well, I'm only 98% sure your data is safe, but I'm 99.9% sure
I can get it back if there's a problem", is more reassuring than
hoping you covered everything.
I've found that testing can sometimes drive out new features from
an app. The one I'm starting to work on now, for example, is a
daemon process that sits and polls some RSS and XML services. But
to test it I've been driven to start writing a (crude, right now)
socket-based remote control and corresponding client interface. I
can't say if it will ever be used, but it's reassuring to know I
can always go in and prod it if I'm not sure it's working right live.
Sometimes it feels like waste, but then insurance products have an
expected net loss, and people still consider them valuable.
Ashley
--
http://www.patchspace.co.uk/
http://aviewfromafar.net/
The great thing about using tools like RSpec is that you write a lot
less bugs in your code, freeing testers up to do exploratory testing
[1] which is where you find the sort of issues I think Jonathan is
worried about.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing
cheers,
Matt
----
http://blog.mattwynne.net
http://songkick.com
In case you wondered: The opinions expressed in this email are my own
and do not necessarily reflect the views of any former, current or
future employers of mine.
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