Unit testing is a type of testing technique which is becoming quite fashionable to the developers and companies that are in the business of creating and managing software. Alas there are seldom any concrete data to support the positive claims of the authors in unit testing methodology books. These claims are instead based on empirical studies and the experience of the authors. The problem that arises from this situation is that it becomes problematic for managers and also the developers themselves to convince both customers and their own management to use this type of testing as there is no exact return of investment model. This essay examines this problem from two points, the first point is from the literature itself and interviews conducted with a number of developers at a software company located in Umea, Sweden. The second point is to compare the experiences from the developers to actual studies conducted about unit testing. The purpose of this comparison is to try and evaluate if unit testing is a cost effective activity. The results of the study are not conclusive as there are no or too few studies that evaluate unit testing from a total cost perspective. Instead the compared studies are mostly concerned with the fewer errors and error prevention that unit testing brings to the software project. The aspect of software quality and the increased manageability that comes with unit testing seems to have a lower priority in this research field. It’s the researcher’s opinion that a broader view of unit testing can create the solid arguments that the managers and developers need. Although the results are inconclusive certain positive tendencies can be observed, more studies with this broader perspective are required in order to evaluate unit testing from a total cost perspective, not only from an error prevention perspective.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-80848 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Forsman, Henrik |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Informatik Student Paper Bachelor (INFSPB) ; 2013.29 |
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