🚀 Integrated Tests Are A Scam (J.B. Rainsberger)

Testing

Discover the pitfalls of integrated tests and learn how to write effective tests with collaboration, contract, and isolation techniques to ensure a secure and maintainable system.

Key takeaways

Integrated tests can be a scam because they can lead to a false sense of security, making developers rely too heavily on them and neglecting other testing strategies.
Collaboration tests are a more effective way to test and should be used as the primary testing strategy, as they check if an implementation matches its interface.
Contract tests are necessary to ensure that an implementation correctly implements a given interface or protocol.
Integrated tests can make it difficult to isolate and debug issues, as they are often complex and test multiple components at once.
The concept of the “tree” (a decomposition of the system into smaller components) can help simplify testing and development.
Stubbing out dependencies and using interfaces can help reduce the complexity of testing and make it more manageable.
Test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD) can help improve the quality of tests and the design of the system.
Relying too heavily on integrated tests can lead to tight coupling and technical debt, making it difficult to change the system in the future.
It is important to write small, focused tests that test specific behavior, rather than complex, comprehensive tests that try to cover everything at once.

🚀 Integrated Tests Are A Scam (J.B. Rainsberger)

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