In this post, I will explain What is the Unit Test and Advantages of Unit Test for a software project? Unit Test is a fast test of a small unit. Unit Testing is a white box testing. What is a unit depends on the developer. It can be any small, testable piece of code, such as a method or a class.
Unit tests are low-level tests. They force a small piece of application to perform some action and they check the final result. This action is very simple and the results are independent of other pieces of the application. Failure in a unit test shows without a doubt which part of the code doesn’t work.
Advantages of Unit Test:
1. Executing unit tests doesn’t require the application to be running. And it can be done even before the whole application is built
2. Unit testing leads to fewer bugs in the software
3. Developers feel more confident in deploying code that is covered by unit tests
4. Programmers following the Test-Driven Development (TDD) process claim that unit testing helps them achieve their goals faster, solving problems with less code and better code architecture
5. With unit tests you can also improve parallel work, you don’t need to wait for the whole project to be done to test just a piece of that
IT projects are constantly changed by client’s, for clients it can be just a small change but for developers, it can have huge consequences. A good engineer will always test his work. But a top engineer will check if he didn’t break anything else. If you have unit tests in place, the previous features can be tested almost instantly.
A lack of unit testing makes it difficult to predict the final testing time. The developer may estimate how much time he will spend on building a new feature, but no one knows how many iterations will be needed for testing during development, or how many conflicts with previous features will be created.
Which project requires a Unit Test?
If you want to know if your project requires unit tests, think about your project and check if any of the below factors fit for your project:
1. Your project will grow in time
2. Your features are complex
3. Bugs in your project can cost you a lot of money
4. Predictable time to market is crucial for your project
If your project matches any of the above, you will benefit from unit tests. The more factors fit, the more unit testing will help you.