Test Desiderata

Desiderata - things wanted or needed.

• Isolated — tests should return the same results regardless of the order in which they are run.
• Composable — I should be able to test different dimensions of variability separately and combine the results.
• Deterministic — if nothing changes, the test result shouldn't change.
• Inspiring — passing the tests should inspire confidence
• Predictive — if the tests all pass, then the code under test should be suitable for production.
• Automated — tests should run without human intervention.
• Writable — tests should be cheap to write relative to the cost of the code being tested.
• Readable — tests should be comprehensible for reader, invoking the motivation for writing this particular test.
• Fast — tests should run quickly.
• Behavioral — tests should be sensitive to changes in the behavior of the code under test. If the behavior changes, the test result should change.
• Specific — if a test fails, the cause of the failure should be obvious.
• Structure-insensitive — tests should not change their result if the structure of the code changes.