Hello Ashish, I was talking to Jeff Fredrick (friend) about the question you asked "why aren't people test infected" and after I gave him my opinion on why that is, he suggested I'd post it here. That Jeff, always thinking. So I'm just going to paste what I told him.

"..the answer is simple: it's tough to do. it's not because people don't like it or think it's a waste of time, it's just tough. testing is like exercising, everyone knows it's good, but unless you're starting to see signs of your bad health/code, you're not very motivated...unless it becomes easy, like the 5-minute-abs-miracle-machine or whatever. so if you know of any tool that makes testing easier, hold on to that tool"
...
"junit is great for testing extremely well designed code or extremely simple code, most [real world] code is neither. you always need some database somewhere, or a webserver maybe, or some complicated state or gui, and then junit is not the right tool. it makes exercising real hard, and people don't get test infected"

btw, I've been dev. testing (and advocating it) for 5-6 years.

Hi Julio - you're right, and well put!

There is no doubt that testing is a tough, tough problem. Most test automation tools work on making some part of the testing problem "easier". JUnit, for instance, provides an easy framework for test development and execution. Other tools similarly provide something or other that make it easier to arrive at tests that the user may need. Ultimately the winners will be tools that can figure out what the user "wants" (see Needs and Wants).

Even if completely solving the testing problem is just not possible - that's still fine by me. If it can be solved to 60% (although I'd shoot for higher ultimately), that's at least 80% higher than what's available today.

It boils down to, in my opinion, "how much work do I need to do to get my testing done" - and tools that can make that answer closer to 10-20% of the work it took to develop the code, will win.

Search was a tough problem - getting the context right and then learning from how users interact with the search results. With time and enough brainpower applied - it can be solved. It's not 100% right now - but it works!

We've got plans to get there ... we may really have the 5-minutes-abs-miracle-machine plan - I'm extremely excited about the possibilities.

Thanks again,

Ashish

PS: I guess I was wishing for too much in expecting non-test-infected developers to be browsing blogs at "developertesting.com" :)

As long as we present testing as something that has to be done for it's own sake, developers will resist.

Someone here used the metaphor that testing is like washing the dishes - we all hate it, but you have to get it done or you don't get to eat next time. If testing were like that, I would not do it either. I would buy a dishwasher or hire someone to do it for me.

Testing is like tasting your food while you are cooking - it's part of the fun of cooking - and if you don't taste it as you go along, it will probably taste like crap at the end.

A lot of developers are short-order cooks. I am taste-infected.

Kevin

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