
Ask HN: Resources for good testing practices - benjaminjosephw
I&#x27;ve started work at a company that doesn&#x27;t have a culture of testing and currently has only a handful of rarely run unit tests that a contractor wrote. I&#x27;m setting up some automated testing but need to get the team on-board with how to write good tests.<p>What resources have you found helpful for encouraging good testing practices that I might be able to share with my team?
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rricetester2
I know this is self-serving to some extent, but I have a web site that is
devoted to content related to software testing practices - articles, videos,
podcasts - all free. The purpose of my site is to be a resource for software
testers. I am also happy to personally answer questions. The information is
based on over 25 years of solid experience and adjustment of the techniques to
keep up with methodologies and technology. My website is
[http://www.riceconsulting.com](http://www.riceconsulting.com) and my YouTube
channel is
[https://www.youtube.com/user/rrice2000](https://www.youtube.com/user/rrice2000).

I also wrote a book on this topic, Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of
Software Testing, which is focused on the human issues in testing.

I can also recommend the resources section of the ASTQB's website where there
are past webinar recordings, white papers, past newsletters, etc. -
[https://www.astqb.org/certified-tester-
resources/](https://www.astqb.org/certified-tester-resources/)

I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me from my website if you like.

Randy Rice

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rricetester
I know this is self-serving to some extent, but I have a web site that is
devoted to content related to software testing practices - articles, videos,
podcasts - all free. The purpose of my site is to be a resource for software
testers. I am also happy to personally answer questions. The information is
based on over 25 years of solid experience and adjustment of the techniques to
keep up with methodologies and technology. My website is
[http://www.riceconsulting.com](http://www.riceconsulting.com) and my YouTube
channel is
[https://www.youtube.com/user/rrice2000](https://www.youtube.com/user/rrice2000).

I also wrote a book on this topic, Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of
Software Testing, which is focused on the human issues in testing.

I can also recommend the resources section of the ASTQB's website where there
are past webinar recordings, white papers, past newsletters, etc. -
[https://www.astqb.org/certified-tester-
resources/](https://www.astqb.org/certified-tester-resources/)

I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me from my website if you like.

Randy Rice

------
brudgers
To me, the big hurdle is more likely to be culture than a lack of resources.
It's a team that doesn't _find_ value in writing tests. That may be due to the
way deadlines are structured, management assigned priorities, low incentives
for pursuing the potential benefits of writing more tests, or unfamiliarity
with testing practices.

It's only in the last case that resources are on the critical path to change.
And all the other potential causes come before the point where changing the
culture is practical.

My advice: as the new person on the team it might be better to approach
changing the culture as a mid-term to long term objective. A hard sell
'everybody [meaning you] need to start writing tests' has an air of 'you are
doing it wrong' about it.

Now the team may be doing it wrong and it is logically possible a new member
might show everyone the light. The odds of that happening in any given case
are probably very very low, human nature being what it is and it being 2016.
By which I mean that if a team isn't already pushing for more tests, then
there's either a good reason or a bad reason and neither is likely to change
over night.

A longer term approach is to show people the benefits of tests. Write tests
yourself and high quality code to go with them and demonstrate the benefits
directly. Or to put it another way, show that your time writing tests makes
your life and other people's lives easier and do it because it's the right
thing and despite other people not writing tests and don't tell people the
should write tests. Let them come to it on their own.

Good luck.

