Why Building My Own Project Changed My Mind About Software Testing
A developer shares how creating The Last Deploy platform in late June shifted their perspective on writing test suites.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- The developer initially viewed software testing as unnecessary overhead for personal projects.
- Building the open-source platform The Last Deploy in late June completely changed this perspective.
- Manual verification becomes increasingly unreliable as a codebase grows and becomes more complex.
- Implementing automated checks ensures existing features do not break after code modifications.
Many software developers often start with the firm belief that writing unit tests, end-to-end tests, and maintaining testing suites are entirely unnecessary for most projects. The underlying assumption is straightforward: if developers write the code themselves, why can't they simply test it themselves?
This perspective shifted dramatically when the developer began working on The Last Deploy in late June, an open-source platform designed to help people learn DevOps and Platform Engineering through hands-on labs. In the early stages, development decisions boiled down to a single principle: if it works, ship it and fix it later if something breaks.
At one point, code was written directly on the production server. While recognized as poor engineering practice, it felt faster because there were no users back then, making potential consequences feel negligible. Eventually, development and production environments were successfully separated.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Separating development and production environments is a crucial first milestone for solo creators. However, the core challenge remains that code modifications rarely exist in isolation; updating one area can inadvertently break features untouched for weeks, making manual checks unsustainable at scale.
As a project expands, manually verifying every feature becomes exceedingly difficult. Relying purely on memory to remember every scenario that needs testing is no longer a viable strategy. That highlights the core difference between merely checking if a recent change works versus maintaining a system that verifies application stability.
The types of testing integrated into the workflow now include:
- Verifying individual functions, such as lab configuration validation without launching actual lab environments.
- Testing component integration, ensuring backend systems handle execution requests and error responses correctly.
- Validating complete user journeys from an end-user perspective.
- Ensuring regression prevention so that previous functionalities remain intact after updates.
For a platform like The Last Deploy, where modifications to shared execution logic can impact multiple existing labs, catching specific classes of issues before they reach users is vital. The goal is not to force a massive testing framework overnight or chase arbitrary code coverage percentages, but to build confidence gradually.
Ultimately, writing working code is only part of the equation, while ensuring it keeps evolving safely is what matters most as real users begin depending on the platform.
Source: Dev.to
Found something wrong in this article? Report an issue with this article
Comments
Leave a Comment