10 Ways To Shoot Yourself In The Foot With Tests
summary
Ten concrete ways tests fail teams and how to fix them: always verify a test by intentionally injecting a bug; avoid isolated tests that share memory, files, or DB rows; keep test data local and names decisive and specific; make each test assert one behavior; prefer behavioral tests over fragile implementation checks (example: editing a book description and migrating the field to a new DB table — behavior tests catch the bug, implementation tests can miss it); use in‑memory fake DB for fast runs and a few real‑DB checks; target fast feedback (ideally seconds, definitely under ~10 minutes).
AI-written summary · about
chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:52Why invest in tests
- 2:18Non-isolated tests
- 3:03Readability issues
- 4:32Single fact tests
- 5:55Behavior vs implementation tests
- 8:45Behavioral test benefits
- 11:35Database fake usage
- 13:01Slow tests impact
- 15:11Fast feedback loop
- 17:38Test effort prioritization
- 19:02Summary
related talks
28m10 Ways To Shoot Yourself In The Foot With Tests
57mAdvanced Testing Techniques: Tips from the trenches
14m3 Automation Testing Mistakes & How to Correct Them?
25mSeven Proven Ways to Ruin Your Test Automation
39mTen things you heard about testing that might be wrong
33mHow to Practice Test Driven Development without Shooting Yourself in the Foot
42mUse testing to Develop Better Software Faster
52m10 simple rules for writing great testcases