Avoiding Automated Testing Pitfalls
Summary
These misconceptions are travel companions, one is rarely seen without the other, and it spells trouble for the software organizations trying to build their automated test suites. Given the inherent limitation of these tests in covering all of the branching and business logic scenarios within a system, relying solely on such a suite can foster a false sense of security for the organization. Upon identifying genuine failures, additional time is needed to pinpoint the specific code responsible for the error and to formulate an effective resolution strategy. There should be significantly fewer of these tests, given their prolonged execution times, reliance on a running application, and increased likelihood of identifying false failures. All future code modifications should come with corresponding unit tests, which require teams to learn and improve their Test-Driven Development, refactoring, and microtesting skills.