Approaches to testing

I have learned testing in the hard way. To be honest my first tests probably didn't test anything. Unfortunately there was no one around me who could help me with it so I was on my own. After few weeks I was able to write unit tests that actually check behaviour of my classes. Green bar really made me proud. However my unit tests at this point were really complex and hard to maintain. I knew that something is missing in my tests and I need to learn more. It was few years ago. Today I know way more about testing but I'm still learning. My latest lesson comes from Oredev Conference.

I have found this talk few days ago and I must say it was a relief for me. It was evidence that I'm not dumb and we all fight with the same problems. Testing is hard and it is not only a slogan. It is really a hard nut to crack to find a balance between an amount of integration, unit and acceptance tests or to decide how detailed the tests should be.

Title of the talk is "Budgeting Reality: a New Approach to Mock Objects" (link). During the talk Justin Searls tries to present approaches to testing, their pros and cons, patterns for testing etc. Really great talk which touches many aspects of testing and organizes knowledge about it. Honestly worth recommendation.

And to every developer who fights with bugs but is full of doubts - you are not alone !