Unit Test Faith
ocean posted the yesterday on his misgivings about unit tests. He’s worried that unit tests might occasionally mask underlying issues with the design of a system. Developers are perhaps too focused on getting the green light on as opposed to ensuring that issues they run in to and the impact of the issues on the overall system are completely understood and fixed. This is definately a case of Solve The Real Problem and if unit tests cause people to not dig deeper to verify that the integrity of the system is maintained once a failing test passes, then they could be in for trouble.
I’m not saying this is what actually happens with unit tests and I don’t think ocean is either, but being aware of possible pitfalls in using any technique is always a good idea and an important part of the ‘Think. Evaluate. Change.’ philosophy that is PSD.