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Testing requirements

... or, what kind of regression tests should City of Helsinki services have?

well-tested program - adapting to every change - no surprises here! -- Panu Kalliokoski, programming haikus

Tests that should be written

  • integration tests that cover the happy paths of each feature and user story
    • this means a program that does what the user would do (against a real service) and checks that what happens is what should happen
  • integration or unit tests that cover forbidden behavior
    • a program that does what a hacker would do and checks that it fails
  • unit tests for every method/function whose logic is "complicated"
    • "complicated" means there are at least three execution paths in the method/function
  • integration or unit tests that provide full code coverage at least for all code that implements the running service
    • this is meant to exclude build-time helper scripts and similar stuff. But consider testing them, too!

Tests that would be nice

  • at least rudimentary performance tests: how long does it take to load each view 1000 times?
    • these produce an important time series where you can find when you made a performance blunder
  • randomised fuzz testing to see that the service doesn't break (or reports errors correctly)
  • state invariants if your data has interdependencies
    • these can be made on database level

How tests should be written

  • Prefer integration (and e2e) tests over unit tests.
    • Use unit tests for stuff that is hard to understand even on a local (unit) level.
    • Integration tests are good for covering a lot of stuff quickly. Unit tests are good for finding exactly where a problem is.
  • Don't use mocks unless it simplifies tests considerably. That is, don't redo software components in a simplified way.
    • instead, use the real components for tests, too.
    • if the real component is really hard to use, then a mock (or fake version) might be feasible. Consider fixing the real component, though.
  • Don't overtest or undertest. (This is hard.)
    • Undertesting means that broken things go unnoticed. Write enough tests to cover all execution paths and test the results are right from the unit/service user's point of view.
    • Overtesting means that change is hard because most of the time goes into fixing tests. In the test, don't check for details that are irrelevant and might change.
  • Use fixtures (such as prepopulated data in the database) if your tests need it.
    • However, don't make your tests depend very much on the detail of testing data. Testing data will inevitably have to be updated someday.

How to write easily testable code

  • Build stateless services if you can. Put state into specialised stateful services (buckets, databases).
    • This way, the state can always be initialised (by fixtures) so that tests work predictably.
  • Use stateless handlers (pure functions/components) wherever you can.
    • Model your program as functions that process input data into output data. Hoist all I/O and other interaction onto as high level in the program as possible.
  • In UI programs, separate state handling from the rest of the program.
    • You can test your reducers (state update functions) separately if they are "complicated".