Code.2.Test.&.Test.2.Code

Casually read a few chapters of Extreme Programming Adventures in C# and Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET the other day. The first book gives a general concept of Extreme Programming (XP) and walks you through the lessons learned by the author while developing a product. Being someone who likes things straight-to-the-point, I find myself lacking the patience to go through the book, chapter-by-chapter. Hence, I went on to the next book.

Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET is nice - so far. As we all know, there is a difference between "developing the right product" and "developing the product right". The team I used to lead usually spend one-third of the project time testing the software to ensure that they are delivered according to specifications and to what the customer expects. Statistically, in the absence of a strong QA/QC team, most software will suffer from large number of defects and developers will have to spend more time on debugging (and subsequently increasing project costs!).

[By the way, if you don't already know, Quality Assurance (QA) is different from Quality Control (QC). QA is preventive, whereby it attempts to address issues before they happen and QC is corrective, whereby it addresses issues that already happened i.e. defects.]

One thing I like about the Test-Driven Development principle of XP is that test cases are written in code form instead of stacks of printed document. And the rule - Tests must be automated really makes a lot of sense.

I'm usually worried about my QA/QC Engineers because most of the time, they are deprived from writing any code. All they do is to type test cases in MS Word and run the tests when the developers claimed that the work is finished. Well, now I know how to bring more value to my QA/QC Engineers.

I've also been looking at NUnit these few days. It is a nice tool for automated testing - mostly unit testing or if you are imaginative, you can also implement other types of test with it. :P

PS. I will post my NUnit adventures soon.