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How Can I Make Testing Software More Stimulating?
An anonymous reader writes "I like writing software. In fact, I revel in it. However, one thing has always kept me back from being able to write the best software I possibly can: testing. I consider testing to be the absolute bane of my existence. It is so boring and un-stimulating that I usually skip it entirely, pass the testing off to someone else, or even worse, if I absolutely have to test, I do a very poor job at it. I know I'm not that lazy, as I can spend hours on end writing software, but there's something about testing that makes my mind constantly want to wander off and think about something else. Does anyone have any tips on how I can make non-automated testing a little bit more stimulating so I can at least begin to form a habit of doing so?"
Imagine that the guy who wrote the code is the royal, snobbish jerk who always thinks his code is better than anything else. Realize that, at some point, he's going to make a change that will change the way the component behaves, and will yet again break your code that uses that component. Don't let him get away with it. Let your fingers pound as you write code to check for the smallest fault. Let your lips curl in a snarl as you feed it poisoned data. Relish in the thought that you can catch him in every slightest mistake. Think of all those things that might not think to catch in the future. Not just the important stuff that defines the role of the component, but those little things that some people might call "implementation details".
Also remember that he's the same jerk who wrote those unit tests that screwed you over all those times. Don't just pay it back; pay it forward.
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Or another way to make it more fun - Godlike!
http://github.com/gunn/godlike
Plays a sound when you acheive 100% test passing rate. The default sound is the Unreal Tournament voice: GODLIKE, but you have as other sound options: headshot, killingspree, perfect, supreme_victory, ultrakill, flag_capture, and frag.
That's similar to what my workplace does. You're not really expected to test your own code - it's assumed that if you're handing it to a QAer that all the use cases you could think of are working. Instead, you get at least one round of "programmer QA" where another developer on your team examines your code for correctness and efficiency before handing it off to QA proper.
The QA folks do mostly UI and workflow testing; they're fairly technical, but they're not coders. If they manage to break anything, you get your code back to fix and the process starts from step one.
That seems to work pretty well - you're not testing your own code, but trying to break your coworker's code before QA gets a chance to.
But, how to make testing your own code interesting? I'm not sure about that - there's not much you can do to make unit tests interesting. But people finding your UI baffling suggests a lack of design. Have you ever done a mock-up and demoed it to end-user victims? They make us at least find other developers before we start throwing around hWnds.
DATABASE WOW WOW
You have no idea how much I empathise. My current job is to design and develop websites for what is probably the most computer illiterate demographic on earth. 45-65 year olds working in a non-technical environment, the majority being women. The assumptions and knowledge that have been ingrained into me does not apply to this group of people - this is something I very quickly learnt.
Dropdown select boxes? Not enough of a visual cue, despite being pretty standard interface elements for decades now. The word online? That's fine. The word offline? Too technical. The phrase 'more options' in the context of a search box? They didn't understand what that meant.
Everytime I do user testing, my mind is absolutely blown by the number of things I've taken for granted about user interfaces. Swearing usually entails after finding out your design is no longer possible due to one of these underlying assumptions. The moral of the story being, you need someone else to test your work... and if you have no eye for user interface design, find someone who does.