Unit Test Key Principles
This article presents some principles to respect when you create unit testing. The list is recovered from this post [Gomes 2017].
Some articles presenting a list of good practices : [Microsoft 2022], [Semyon 2022]
DRY test
A dry test was originally thought by firefighter (according to Wikipedia): it is better to train without a real fire and without water. It consumes less resource, and it is less risky because there is not check the code before you run it OR with less outside components For example, the most basic example is by reading the code by hand. You remove execution error of the computer of the scope of the test.
But it can be too complicated, and one of the possible next step is to test a functionality offline before online.
Reference : [Tech With Tech’s Team 2022], [Wikipedia 2022]
KISS / Keep it Simple, Stupid
With this acronym, we can immediately understand the purpose : a test must be more simple than the code it checks Reference : [Simpson no date]
SRP / Single-responsibility principle
The single-Responsibility principle, more particularly used in OOP, involves dividing responsibilities into functions, modules or classes. By extension, this principle can be adapted to tests: a test, an element (= a responsibility) to be tested Reference : [Wynn 2021] SRP is a part of the acronym SOLID, more information is available in the reference : [Kovan 2019], [Abba 2022]
Yagni / You Aren’t Gonna Need It
When you create a test, it is important NOT to have to develop features of the project you are testing. The reason is all created code has a cost :
- cost of build
- cost of delay
- cost of carry
- cost of repair
Reference : [Fowler 2015], [tvanfosson 2021], [Gomes 2017]
Reference
ABBA, Ihechikara Vincent, 2022. SOLID Definition – the SOLID Principles of Object-Oriented Design Explained. freeCodeCamp. Online. 26 April 2022. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/solid-principles-single-responsibility-principle-explained/
FOWLER, Martin, 2015. Yagni. martinFowler.com. Online. 26 May 2015. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/Yagni.html
GOMES, Paulo, 2017. Unit Testing and the Arrange, Act and Assert (AAA) Pattern. Medium. Online. 9 September 2017. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@pjbgf/title-testing-code-ocd-and-the-aaa-pattern-df453975ab80
KOVAN, Gerry, 2019. SOLID design principles make test-driven development (TDD) faster and easier. Online. 17 May 2019. [Accessed 27 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://gkovan.medium.com/solid-design-principles-makes-test-driven-development-faster-and-easier-35c9eec22ff1
MICROSOFT, 2022. Unit testing best practices with .NET Core and .NET Standard. Medium. Online. 10 April 2022. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/testing/unit-testing-best-practices
SEMYON, Kirekov, 2022. A Deep Dive into Unit Testing. semaphore. Online. 11 August 2022. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://semaphoreci.com/blog/unit-testing
SIMPSON, Mark, no date. The fundamentals of unit testing: KISS. Mark’s Devblog. Online. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://defragdev.com/blog/2012/11/04/the-fundamentals-of-automated-testing-kiss.html
TECH WITH TECH’S TEAM, 2022. Dry Run Testing: Meaning. Tech With Tech. Online. 6 August 2022. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://techwithtech.com/dry-run-testing-meaning/
TVANFOSSON, 2021. Does YAGNI also apply when writing tests? Stack Overflow. Online. 31 May 2021. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/945493/does-yagni-also-apply-when-writing-tests
WIKIPEDIA, 2022. Dry run (testing). Wikipedia. Online. 24 October 2022. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_run_(testing)
WYNN, Richard, 2021. Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) in 100 seconds. DEV. Online. 31 May 2021. [Accessed 25 October 2022]. Retrieved from: https://dev.to/richardwynn/single-responsibility-principle-srp-in-100-seconds-3b1d