On: Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?

[barrkel]

Most interesting refactorings change the boundaries and count of abstractions, which usually does break unit tests.

Unit tests are great at the leaves of the call graph, and things which are almost leaves because their dependencies aren't at any real risk of change. The further into the stack you go, the more brittle they get.

[humanrebar → barrkel]

The point is that I use all kinds of tests all the time. It works fine. You aren't required to join a tribe and debate about abstract test styles.

Look at the current problem and come up with good answers to the questions:

- How do we know it works?

- How will we know it still works in a year?

...you don't always need the best answers, even. Most projects should start with honest answers and work from there.