Aryeh Gregor wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Ryan Lane <[email protected]> wrote:
>   
>> I think the hardest
>> part is going to be keeping the tests up to date with the code.
>>     
>
> That's pretty easy -- just have Code Review complain whenever anyone
> causes a test failure, and force them to fix the tests they broke or
> get reverted.  This assumes that it's easy to look at the changed
> output and change the test so it's marked correct, though.  That seems
> like it *should* be the case, at a glance, if the tests are
> well-written.
>   

I'd encourage folks to start small with this.

One of the common failure modes of projects adopting automated 
end-to-end tests (like Selenium) is that somebody divorced from the 
development process makes a bunch of tests, often with playback and 
record tools. As developers change things, they have a hard time 
figuring out what tests mean or how to update them; that can either 
reduce commits or encourage people to disable tests rather than updating 
them.

I say this not to discourage the effort; I'm a huge fan of automated 
tests. I just think that to maximize the chance of success, it's better 
for the early focus to be on utility and sustainability rather than 
maximum test coverage.

William

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