This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Janek Schwarz. Original Post: Rockstars vs. Unit Tests Feed Title: The Wannabe Java Rockstar Feed URL: http://weblog.janek.org/Archive/Categories/javablogs.rss.xml Feed Description: The Wannabe Java Rockstar: Janek's weblog where all posts go to Eleven Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Janek Schwarz Latest Posts From The Wannabe Java Rockstar

A huge discussion has been going on in the Joel on Software forum: Rockstars vs. Unit Tests. It all started with Joel trying to illustrate the Yiddish terms rosh katan and rosh gadol. A day later his reader Tamir helped with a great explanation. I'm not going to copy it verbatim  -- it comes down to "work to rule" and "do what is desired, not what is requested". What Joel describes as rosh katan respectively rosh gadol behavior of software developers makes a lot of sense.

In contrast, I can't agree with this:

For instance, in software development, we like to have people unit-test their code. However, a good, experienced developer is about 100 times less likely to write bugs that will be uncovered during unit tests than a beginner. It is therefore practically useless for the former to write these... but most methodologies would enforce that he has to, or else you don't pass some phase.

Maybe it's because I'm only a Wannabe Rockstar. But I find unit tests helpful; they are a my first line of defense. First, unit tests shield me from myself. It's hard to admit, but sometimes even The Wannabe Java Rockstar makes stupid mistakes. They also protect against well-intentioned yet still wrong-doing coworkers.

In an ideal world, I'd work only with Rockstars. In reality I don't. That's why I value unit tests. Plus, they serve other purposes too. As Greg Luck says:

A suite of automatic regression tests, with high coverage, support safe refactoring of the code base. This benefit is less about testing in the sense of producing a high quality output, than in enabling developers to make changes without fear. In this sense tools like JUnit are very valuable.

Isn't that something even a True Rockstar can relate to?