Test scripts matter

I was part of a conversation discussing how test scripts matter and whether the output of “working apps” are the be all and end all of testing. My view is that the process and documentation of testing matters, and here’s why:

• Auditability – Many industries will be audited by governing bodies or even as a part of ISO compliance. Test materials make a great way to meet regulatory compliance to many of these standards. In some cases the regulatory body requires specific test evidence to show what was tested and how.

• Shift left – We don’t want long feedback loops and we’re not here to trip up developers. We can share what we intend to test (or risks) with the team early from test artefacts to highlight problems that can be overcome early and to check our understanding.

• Quality narratives – Test reporting isn’t just about saying 58.7% of tests have been run; we need to share the actual details of what did we do and what did we see? Test artefacts are great for helping enter into a narrative of “Here’s what I’ve tested, this is what’s good and this is what was unexpected”.

• Handover / Documenting – Tests are a well known for documenting code, we can also use them for documenting features and behaviours. TDD & BDD are classic examples of this, but we can also create exploratory test notes or test scripts to document behaviour and features throughout the stack. These are great for when we revisit an area and need to know what’s happening, have to hand over code or onboard a new team member.

• Decision making – You can’t make a decision on run rates alone, you need information about what problems are or what’s looking good about a feature. Test artefacts allow us to share that information to people so they they can be informed about the decisions they’re making.

• To keep us honest – Let’s be real, having to create test artefacts means we’re more likely to run the test properly. If you have to document whet you’re doing / have done then you’re going to do the test and do it fully. We can also ask to check the tests of 3rd parties to ensure that the features or code they’ve written has been tested.