The 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reports that 60% of developers use automated testing. But the truth is that automated testing and mocking need to be the most prioritized area in your SDLC to eliminate friction for your developer team.
It is not just about having the tools in place but about cultivating a culture where testing is seen as an integral part of the development process, not an afterthought. This shift in mindset can dramatically improve software quality, reduce costs and enhance overall business performance. Here are the four reasons why testing should be the more prioritized area of your SDLC.
1. Testing Guarantees High-Quality Software
As a prior dev turned CEO, I firmly believe that the cornerstone of delivering an exceptional user experience is ensuring the quality of our software. Our top priority is, and always should be, to enhance the satisfaction and trust of our end users, which means implementing a robust testing framework is crucial in our quest for quality.
This framework is your first line of defense, helping you identify and fix bugs early in the development process, thereby minimizing the risk of major issues when the software goes live. It is about ensuring that your products perform flawlessly and meet the expectations of the end users, which is essential for maintaining reliability and boosting customer satisfaction.
There is also a feed-forward effect — maintaining high code quality and functionality standards. With integrated testing, code is always at the highest standard required, anything lower fails testing and is rejected. Thus, your codebase becomes, definitionally, high-standard, and any new developer on your team can see the standard and what’s required to hit it.
By emphasizing the importance of testing, mocking and resolving issues before they impact your users, you safeguard your reputation and enhance customer retention. This proactive approach significantly cuts down the costs that would otherwise be incurred in addressing problems after the product’s release.
In summary, as tech leaders, our commitment to rigorous testing is non-negotiable. It is not just about finding bugs; it is about building trust, ensuring reliability and fostering a culture of excellence that permeates every level of our organization.
2. Automated Testing -> Happier Devs
Testing in software development can sometimes be viewed as a daunting task by developers, primarily because traditional testing methods require significant manual input. Developers often find themselves writing or updating numerous tests for even minor code changes, and the responsibility of maintaining these tests can be overwhelming and produce friction.
However, when testing is approached correctly with automation, it transforms into a powerful tool that enhances developer productivity and creates a friction-free coding environment. Prioritizing automated testing creates developers who will no longer dread the process but embrace it. This allows you to remove barriers and reduce the tedious aspects of the development process, allowing developers to focus on what they do best: Creating and improving software.
For starters, automated testing instills confidence in developers about the changes they implement. The fear of introducing bugs into production can lead developers to spend excessive amounts of time manually verifying their work. Automated tests act as a reliable safety net, giving developers the freedom to refactor and innovate without the anxiety of disrupting existing functionalities. This confidence allows for more creative and bold approaches to product development.
Also, automating testing significantly improves the efficiency of debugging. When issues do arise, automated testing frameworks help pinpoint the problem quickly and accurately. This streamlined process not only reduces the time spent on debugging but also minimizes downtime, thus allowing developers to focus more on enhancing the product rather than fixing it.
3. Better Testing Further Supports Agile & DevOps Practices
Continuous feedback is the lifeblood of agile development. Automated testing and mocking integrate with CI/CD pipelines for rapid feedback for the team. This means issues are caught early, often within minutes of code being committed.
It is not just about finding bugs; it is about creating a development environment where quality is constantly monitored and improved. This iterative development becomes possible with robust testing practices. Without comprehensive testing, each iteration risks introducing new bugs or regressions. With it, teams can confidently push updates, knowing that the core functionality will remain intact.
These practices foster a DevOps culture where development and operations work hand in hand and where these traditionally siloed departments are aligned on what constitutes ‘working software’. By prioritizing automated testing and mocking within your agile and DevOps practices, you create an ecosystem where quality is built from the start, developers are empowered to innovate rapidly and your organization can adapt swiftly to changing business needs.
4. Testing Improves Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
This might seem an odd one. How can adding testing help devs collaborate and share knowledge?
Easy. Tests are documentation. They are the best type of documentation as they are the expected outcome from any function or component. They are live documentation of code behavior, thereby helping new team members understand the system. Tests provide clear documentation of how different parts of the system should work, serving as a reliable reference point for developers.
This shared understanding fostered by comprehensive tests can significantly reduce misunderstandings and conflicts within the team, leading to smoother collaboration. When developers write tests, they also uncover edge cases or potential issues that might not have been apparent otherwise, further enhancing the team’s collective knowledge about the system’s intricacies.
Tests also help build a consistent development environment within your engineering organization. Mocking creates a predictable environment for development and testing, enhancing team collaboration. This consistency allows developers to confidently work on different parts of the system, knowing that their changes won’t unexpectedly break other components.
When new team members join or developers switch between projects, comprehensive tests and mocks significantly reduce the learning curve, allowing them to become more productive and contribute effectively to the codebase.
Conclusion
If I leave you with anything, it is that it’s important to note that testing is required for any modern software architecture. Microservices and cloud-native applications are so complex today that testing is necessary to ensure every service is working and interacting as expected.
Prioritizing testing and mocking throughout the development lifecycle (and shifting it left) is essential — it transcends best practices to become a competitive imperative. Tech leaders who advocate for a thorough testing culture equip their organizations to produce superior products, swiftly adapt to market changes and develop sustainable, scalable systems.
Thus, the real question has shifted from whether you can afford to prioritize testing to whether you can afford to overlook it.
