Should I demand unit-testing from programmers?

Posted by Morten on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Morten
Published on 2012-06-26T11:59:56Z Indexed on 2012/06/26 15:24 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 358

Filed under:

unit-testing

I work at a place, where we buy a lot of IT-projects. We are currently producing a standard for systems-requirements for the requisition of future projects. In that process, We are discussing whether or not we can demand automated unit testing from our suppliers.

I firmly believe, that proper automated unit-testing is the only way to document the quality and stability of the code. Everyone else seems to think that unit-testing is an optional method that concerns the supplier alone. Thus, we will make no demands of automated unit-testing, continous testing, coverage-reports, inspections of unit-tests or any of the kind. I find this policy extremely frustrating.

Am I totally out of line here?

Please provide me with arguments for any of the oppinions.

Related posts about unit-testing

Unit testing best practices for a unit testing newbie

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
In recent years, I have only written small components for people in larger projects or small tools. I have never written a unit test and it always seems like learning how to write them and actually making one takes a lot longer than simply firing up the program and testing for real. I am just about… >>> More
About unit testing a function in the zend framework and unit testing in general

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello people, I am diving into the world of unit testing. And i am sort of lost. I learned today that unit testing is testing if a function works. I wanted to test the following function: public function getEventById($id) { return $this->getResource('Event')->getEventById($id); } So… >>> More
Unit testing a database connection and general questions on database-dependent code and unit testing

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, If I have a method which establishes a database connection, how could this method be tested? Returning a bool in the event of a successful connection is one way, but is that the best way? From a testability method, is it best to have the connection method as one method and the method to get… >>> More
What is the objective of unit testing?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've been working with C# for the last 2 years, and I've never done any unit testing. I just need to know what the objective of unit testing is. What kind of results do we expect from unit testing? Is code quality checked by unit testing? In my view, unit testing is the job of testers; if that is… >>> More
Unit testing newbie team needs to unit test

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm working with a new team that has historically not done ANY unit testing. My goal is for the team to eventually employ TDD (Test Driven Development) as their natural process. But since TDD is such a radical mind shift for a non-unit testing team I thought I would just start off with writing unit… >>> More

Developer IT