Improve Your Testing 1: Play With Your Tests

Understand the hidden connections between code and tests by turning testing into a game.

«Heat your sandcastles into unbreakable testing skills» — Generated by the Author.

Welcome to ‘Level Up Testing — Round 1,’ the first article in which I present unconventional techniques that will transform your approach to testing. We’re starting with a simple, yet profound idea: play with your tests. Forget the convention that tests should always pass — this time, we’re exploring what happens when you deliberately make them fail. This seemingly innocent task is designed to provoke a change in the perception of how code and testing relate.

So, I will present you one of the simplest yet most recommended techniques I have suggested as a teacher and consultant:

play with tests!

Let’s begin.

You do testing, don’t you?

Now, I’ll make an assumption: even if you’re not good at testing, not a QA specialist, or don’t practice TDD, it’s very likely that you are already doing some form of testing.

The main reason for this assumption is that, generally, management has an excessive obsession with requiring testing. The driving idea behind this obsession is simple: by creating tests, and achieving a sufficiently high level of code…