Unit Testing: Is It Really Worth It?

This summer we're going to try something different from our usual meeting format. Typically tech meetings draw fewer participants in the summer months, so we'll take advantage of the smaller crowd and try a format that allows for more networking and discussion. Instead of a formal presentation in a conference room, we'll have enlightening conversations at dinner. Each month we'll pick a discussion topic that you might want to read up on or think about in advance. But we won't limit ourselves to just that topic. After all, it's a dinner conversation.

This month's topic will be "Unit Testing: Is It Really Worth It?" Sure, if we all had unlimited time, money, and programming expertise at our disposal, we'd unit test everything. But in the real world there are always trade-offs. Put yourself in a manager's role. What are you going to sacrifice so you have the time/money to implement unit tests? Features? Deadlines? Integration tests? System tests? Wouldn't you be better off spending the extra money to provide training and/or hire better programmers so you get better code in the first place? It seems like every geek with a blog advocates 100% test coverage. I don't buy all the propaganda, so I'll play devil's advocate. Come to dinner and convince me I'm wrong.

Here are a few articles and blog posts to get you thinking:

http://java.dzone.com/news/why-evangelising-unit-testing- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/67299/is-unit-testing-worth-the-effort http://www.daedtech.com/are-unit-tests-worth-it https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/unit-testing-myths-and-practices/
We'll meet at Ruby Tuesday, just off of West Nursery Road, and very close to TEKsystems where we usually meet.

PLEASE -- RSVP and keep your RSVP current so I can make a reasonably accurate reservation at Ruby Tuesday the day before the meeting.

Thanks this month to Northrup Grumman for providing appetizers, but after that it's BYOD (buy your own dinner).

Steven Stewart
P&P Meetup Co-Organizer