Summary

In this chapter we learned about testing, both manually using test plans and automatically using a testing framework. We saw how the cost of fixing errors rises exponentially with how long they go undiscovered. We discussed how writing automated tests during the programming phase can help uncover these errors earlier, and how regression testing can help us find new errors introduced while adding to our programs.

We learned how to use xUnit and Visual Studio’s Test Explorer to write and run tests on .NET programs. We explored a good chunk of xUnit’s assertion library. We saw how to get Visual Studio to analyze our tests for code coverage, discussed this metric’s value to evaluate our tests. We also explored mutation testing, and saw how it can help improve our tests.

As you move forward as a software developer, you’ll want to incorporate testing into your code-writing efforts.