Testing Practices

Testing Practices

Optimize for confidence per unit of maintenance, not test count or line coverage:

The more tests resemble how software is used, the more confidence they provide.

“Write tests. Not too many. Mostly integration.” Integration means multiple owned units exercising a real contract together; exact labels matter less than useful, reliable failures.

Choose the test from the risk

1. Name the regression that would matter to a user or consumer.
2. Identify the public boundary where that regression is observable.
3. Choose the lowest-cost test that faithfully crosses that boundary.
4. Test the normal path and the important failure/edge states—not every branch.

Do not impose fixed percentages. A parser, UI app, and distributed service need different shapes.

Test contracts, not construction

Assert what a real user or developer consumer can observe:

• status, headers, response body, persisted state;
• accessible roles/names, visible content, navigation, focus, disabled/loading/error state;
• documented callback/module output or side effect.

Avoid asserting private state, helper calls, component names, generated classes, exact serialization, incidental DOM nesting, query text, or asset hashes unless one is itself a documented contract. A good refactor that preserves behavior should usually preserve the test.

For UI, interact through the rendered DOM. Prefer role/name/label, then stable text, then a test ID when no user-facing locator exists. CSS/XPath selectors are a last resort. Use retrying/web-first assertions for asynchronous UI rather than sleeps.

Keep real code inside the boundary

• Do not mock code owned by the unit under test merely to make setup easier.
• Substitute external, destructive, nondeterministic, slow, or unavailable boundaries: payment, email, clocks, random values, third-party APIs.
• Prefer a small fake server, in-memory adapter, or injected dependency over module-level mock webs.
• Model both success and meaningful failure responses at the boundary.
• If fixture setup starts reimplementing production behavior, move the test outward or simplify the seam.

A mock interaction assertion is valid only when the interaction is the public contract. Otherwise assert the resulting behavior.

Make failures trustworthy

Tests must be deterministic, isolated, and independently runnable:

• control time, randomness, network, external data, and environment;
• create state per test and clean it up;
• never depend on execution order or another test’s output;
• synchronize on promises, events, or observable state—not arbitrary delays;
• keep live-service smoke tests separate from required deterministic tests;
• never perform real destructive or billable actions without explicit approval.

Do not skip or quarantine tests as routine maintenance. Do not keep placeholder tests for speculative or abandoned behavior; tests may lead implementation when they specify an approved contract. A flaky test is a defect: fix its synchronization/isolation or delete it if it protects no meaningful contract.

Keep the suite small and readable

• One test should express one behavior, though it may contain several assertions proving that behavior.
• Name tests as use cases: action/condition → observable result.
• Prefer Arrange–Act–Assert without nested ceremony.
• Share mechanics (app creation, valid fixture builders, external boundary adapters), not the facts central to the scenario.
• Keep scenario-specific values and overrides in the test.
• Accept small duplication when abstraction would hide intent.
• Do not add tests for trivial framework/library behavior already guaranteed elsewhere.
• Do not use code-coverage targets as a goal. Review important use-case coverage instead.

Required review

Before finishing, verify:

1. Regression: What real breakage makes this test fail?
2. Boundary: Does it use a public/user-observable contract?
3. Sensitivity: Would a behavior-preserving refactor still pass? Would the intended bug fail?
4. Fidelity: Are owned collaborators real where practical?
5. Determinism: Are external data, time, randomness, and async completion controlled?
6. Value: Is this behavior important and not already proven more effectively elsewhere?
7. Validation: Run the narrow test first, then the repository’s relevant full checks.

When reviewing a suite, prioritize false confidence, implementation coupling, flaky synchronization, skipped tests, and missing critical journeys over raw test or coverage counts.

Sources

• Kent C. Dodds, The Testing Trophy and Testing Classifications
• Kent C. Dodds, Write tests. Not too many. Mostly integration.
• Kent C. Dodds, Testing Implementation Details
• Kent C. Dodds, How to know what to test
• Testing Library guiding principles
• Playwright best practices