Unit Tests and Gambling
Today I ran across this post which quotes a testing-related analogy:
Checking code into source-control without unit-tests is like betting on a poker hand without looking at the cards. — Anon.
A nice theme, which brought to mind another gambling analogy:
Developing software without unit tests is like playing the pokies1.
How so? In a few ways:
- Poker machines are a mug’s game: in the long term, you always lose. Just so with a lack of unit testing: it will come back to haunt you as you struggle to fix bugs discovered late and lose the confidence to refactor.
- The really insidious thing with poker machines is that they are designed to keep you playing by paying out small wins reasonably frequently. Likewise, developers get addicted to the short-term feeling of productivity when they cut reams of code without tests.
- Gambling on pokies can become a downward spiral: “just one more spin and I’m done … ok, another one, I’m due for a win …”. Sounds scarily like the development team that will put better testing in place “just after we hit this important deadline”. There’s always another spin, and there’s always another deadline.
The key thing is to think long term. Don’t play a game you are set up to lose.
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1 That’s poker machines/slot machines/fruit machines depending on where in the world you are throwing away your money.
