A Quick Guide to Unit Testing and How it would Help You Save Some Bucks!

In the world of software development, developers and business owners are looking for ways to increase the efficiency of their products while reducing development costs. Unit testing, if done correctly, can help do both. 

Unit testing is the base of modern product testing and remote QA testing initiatives. While ensuring stability at the unit levels and strength for large software applications, unit testing helps developers reach their desired outcomes.

If unit testing has already made its mark in the development field, why do we need to introduce it here and now?

Over the years, the teams have had different approaches to unit testing. This diversification may prove challenging for the enterprises when they decide on the unit testing strategy. 

What is Unit Testing?

Unit testing refers to testing granular or functional parts of a more robust software application. These units are tested in isolation from other modules for their resilience and performance. The main focus while team testing the components is to ensure that the actual behavior of the software aligns with their expected behavior. 

Generally, the process of unit testing these days is automated, but developers usually prefer it done manually. If the developers use test automation, they create the test code and then embed it directly into the principle of the unit. 

In unit testing, the Quality Assurance teams test a single module by connecting the module to entities such as databases and libraries. Every unit is treated as a separate entity that runs independently and exhibits a comprehensive behavior set. Testing them provides a clear idea of how these blocks will perform. 

How Does Unit Testing would Help You Save Money?

The cost of fixing the bugs at different detection stages is shown in the picture. The earlier the bug is detected, the lower the cost of its correction. 

When the unit tests are written, several bugs are found at the architecture stage of the software. This practice helps prevent these bugs from flowing to the subsequent steps, including post-product release. 

Source: deepsource.io

This helps reduce the costs of fixing bugs even at the later development stage. It also brings many benefits to the users, allowing them to avoid dealing with a buggy product and enhancing their overall experience. 

Why Perform Unit Testing?

Many developers often turn a blind eye to the importance of writing unit tests. But with unit testing, several benefits should be considered before forming a final opinion. 

Firstly, the bugs with unit testing can be found easily. 

Also, the codes covered and had undergone unit testing are more reliable. If future changes alter something in the code, the developers can instantaneously find the difference rather than completely reassess the code. 

Hence, the unit tests help developers identify problems and fix them quickly. With limited resources spent finding the bugs, the teams can quickly move on to the project’s next phase. 

Here are a few quick pointers that would help you understand the importance of unit testing;

• Safe refactoring

If you use CI/CD practices and want to introduce some changes in the code, you can do this easily through the unit testing process. This testing procedure makes the coding process simple, providing developers enough agility to check every unit for bugs and fix errors in the code. 

• Improvement in the quality of code

Since unit testing accelerates the process of finding bugs, future changes in the code can be incorporated easily while allowing developers to quickly identify the cause of the problem. 

• Quicker access to code documentation

The documentation provided by unit testing allows the developers to understand what functionality is provided by code and how developers can use the same. 

• Reduction in costs

The cost of detecting an error at an early stage is significantly lower than detecting and correcting it at the later stages. Hence, performing unit testing saves development and time. 

Unit testing is an essential part of the software development process and helps ensure the highest quality of the product. This testing product can provide several benefits throughout the development lifecycle, such as those mentioned above.

How is the Unit Testing Performed?

As we have discussed, there are two ways to perform a specific testing procedure. It can be done through a manual process or automation. Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages. 

But considering the efforts and costs required in manual unit testing, many testers prefer automated testing procedures. 

Anyways, which-ever you may prefer, the workflow of unit testing consists of 4 critical stages that are;

• Creation of test cases

Developers write the code required for testing a particular function in the software. 

• Reviewing the test cases

The test cases are then reviewed and isolated to remove any dependencies to perform the procedure better. 

• Baseline the test cases

Testers make use of the unit test frameworks to develop automated results. 

• Executing the test cases

While executing the test cases, the developers must flag and report the failed test cases. This helps the systems to stop related testing based on failures in the test cases. 

What are Some Unit Testing Best Practices?

Now that we have concluded that we need unit testing for several obvious reasons, we need to focus on helping you build the right strategy for your enterprise. 

Here we have outlined six best practices for unit testing that guarantee better results and ensure profitable and sustainable testing coverage. 

• Create reliable and precise tests

The first step towards building an excellent testing practice is to create reliable unit tests. The tests should report unexpected results that are observed during the testing procedure.  

• Integrate automation in testing

Due to manual bias, the unit testing outcomes can sometimes provide unsatisfactory results. Hence, it is advisable to include automation in the testing procedures wherever possible. This helps deliver reliable unit testing results faster. 

• Prioritizing use cases

One of the most crucial focuses of unit testing is to ensure that the code is easily maintainable and the new developers can understand it without any challenge. And this is achievable by focusing on a single use case at a time and prioritizing the rest.

• Speed up the tests with better isolation

It would be best to do unit testing in isolation without depending on other tests. Making the use case more straightforward and isolated can help better test code coverage. 

• Integrating testing into the build process

While the developers follow a Test Driven Development model, it is best to include sufficient coverage for testing for additional safety. While opting for end-to-end test automation, the build processes would ensure that all unit tests are correctly executed. 

Final Words

If software testing is efficiently carried out from the first stage of product development, businesses can be sure that the software they use is high-quality and devoid of bugs. Software testing must begin at the very beginning of the code level and may be accomplished when software developers carry out unit testing.

The first testing technique that concentrates on the code is unit testing. This testing strategy involves testing individual little program units. The teams gain from this method in numerous ways, including early issue discovery and code correction, before they become costly to address throughout the SDLC. Therefore, using unit testing is crucial for organizations to guarantee that the software is bug-free and of the highest quality.

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