What is the value of automating your software testing as much as possible?
At a talk I gave once to a large room of software engineers, I asked for a show of hands: how many write unit tests all the time? And, how many use version control for nearly all their code? Almost every hand went up on both counts. I was proud of them for this, and told them so!
A little later in the same talk, I asked how many had use a code coverage tool on their code in the past week. Only fifteen percent! A tiny fraction. And these were undeniably excellent engineers. What would the ratio have been for a more mediocre group?
Automation is a form of leverage. If each attendee's organization had an automated QA system that simply did a source checkout each night, and executed all tests within a code coverage tool while everyone slept, then everyone would have been able to raise their hands... even if they did not know how to invoke the tool!
This situation demonstrates why an automated testing system is important. By silently working for you and your team, all measurable metrics are just there and available. You won't use them all the time. That's fine. They are there when you need them, without distracting you from more important matters.
A great automated quality assurance system will have a number of good ingredients. Let's look at them.
(And by the way, this list is unapologetically opinionated. It's not necessary to agree with each item. But everything is there for a reason. I urge you to at least understand the rationale behind it. Then you are well equipped to decide whether to do it this way or another way. Send questions and/or criticisms to amax@redsymbol.net.)
Read the full version of Building an Automated Testing/Quality Assurance System
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