Conclusion

The simpler it is to run a suite of tests, the more often those tests will be run. The more the tests are run, the sooner any deviation from those tests will be found. If we can run all the tests several time a day, then the system will never be broken for more than a few minutes. This is a reasonable goal. We simply don't allow the system to backslide. Once it works to a certain level, it never backslides to a lower level.

Yet verification is only one of the benefits of writing tests. Both unit tests and acceptance tests are a form of documentation. That documentation is compilable and executable and therefore accurate and reliable. Moreover, these tests are written in unambiguous languages that are readable by their audience. Programmers can read unit tests because they are written in their programming language. Customers can read acceptance tests because they are written in a simple tabular language.

Possibly the most important benefit of all this testing is the impact it has on architecture and design. To make a module or an application testable, it must also be decoupled. The more testable it is, the more decoupled it is. The act of considering comprehensive acceptance and unit tests has a profoundly positive effect on the structure of the software.