Verandr Philosophy
Automated testing isn’t optional
Time saved now is time lost later
It’s fairly common for development agencies to charge a premium to include automated tests. We believe this is an anti-pattern, and only shifts the cost further down the timeline. Without automated tests, development of new features is fast. But when it comes time for end-to-end testing, any small change can cause regression in unforeseeable ways. Without automated tests the entire app needs to be re-tested manually in order to ensure nothing has regressed. This is just not feasible and leads to what we call the “whack-a-mole” situation…where fixing one issue causes another one to pop up somewhere else.
Testing is part of our culture
Automated testing is important for other reasons too. It reinforces a culture of accountability and encourages developers to feel ownership over what they deliver. When programming, it can be easy to get sucked into the details of implementation and the code itself. A culture of testing reminds developers to see the bigger picture and ask themselves, “How can I ensure this feature works as expected?”