Monday, September 26, 2016

Reasons Why IBM I Series Unit Testing Is A Good Testing Method

By Daniel Stone


There is no such thing as a perfect code. When it comes to software programming bugs are bound to be plenty during the development stage. Leave the clean up to quality assurance before alpha and beta release. With no proper work flow and organization during development stage, the process of development is going to take longer.

IBM is a widely known company that works with operating systems such us MS 2000 and Linux, among many of the other OS that use it. The I series compiles languages such as Pascal, c, assembly and more. IBM I series unit testing is basically used for I series apps. The testing method can vary depending on the developers working on the software.

This is a testing method where code is made to check the proper functionality of all fragments in the system, one by one. In a way, it is a process of automating tests in a compartmentalized way against the software. The tests are also added to version control as a means of documentation.

The main benefit is how bugs are discovered early. The unit tests are not done when all the source code is compiled and integrated. This is a debugging method in test driven development. During the continuous integration process, while the software program grows and grows, automated tests are done to functional parts of the programming.

This is a precaution to future add on features to the application. Looking at the bigger picture, it saves developers more time and money from debugging and revising the source code in case of post beta test errors. Putting these additional features will not have a domino effect of logical errors on the already existing functions.

The program is protected from time and space bound factors. When the tests are done, the code is guaranteed to work under all circumstances even after updates done later. Like mentioned earlier, the whole system is protected from the domino effect of bugs and errors when an edit is done or when a feature is added. This makes sure that while the testing is compartmentalized, its connection to other modules remain.

Commonly, when the repository begins to stack different programs, it gets more difficult to find a bug when the software crashes. This makes developers more hesitant to add into the source code. Since unit testing isolates the process of finding bugs, when a fragment is pushed to the whole system, it is guaranteed to work without affecting the base.

Being able to release quick fixes is possible. The program becomes more flexible to quick changes. If a new feature needs to be deployed, there is still a probability that this deployment may cause a domino effect of bugs on the already existing software due to the side effects that the developer may not have predicted.

There will always be a counter argument to disqualify this method. The strongest one being that this type of TDD is just too time consuming. But the point of this method is for future development and in circumstances that other modules might be added. The nature of unit testing also makes it readable for developers who might get deployed to the project in later stages.




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