Learn how to communicate the value and importance of test coverage to your team and stakeholders in code review. Test coverage can improve your code quality and reliability. (original) (raw)

Last updated on Jul 5, 2024

Test coverage is a measure of how well your code is tested by automated tests, such as unit tests, integration tests, or end-to-end tests. It can help you identify gaps in your testing, improve the quality and reliability of your code, and prevent bugs and errors from reaching production. But how do you communicate the value and importance of test coverage to your team and stakeholders, who may have different priorities, expectations, or perspectives on testing? Here are some tips to help you make your case for test coverage in code review.

Explain the benefits of test coverage

Explaining the value of test coverage to your team and stakeholders can be a great way to show the benefits it brings in terms of time, money, and reputation. For example, test coverage can help you save time by reducing manual testing, debugging, and rework. It can also save money by avoiding costly errors, failures, and customer complaints. Additionally, it can enhance your reputation by delivering high-quality, reliable, and secure code. Furthermore, it can facilitate collaboration by documenting and verifying the code's functionality and behavior. Lastly, it can support continuous delivery by enabling faster and safer deployments.

Explaining the value of something should be expressed through the lens of the recipient, not what you think matters. I talk about this a lot at www.softsideofcyber.com and have run into it frequently explaining both very technical topics or decisions to explaining big strategic concepts; relating it all back to who’s on the other side will always improve your message.

Use data and metrics to support your claims

Another way to illustrate the value of test coverage is to utilize data and metrics to back up your assertions and demonstrate the influence of testing on your code quality and performance. You can employ tools and reports to monitor and visualize your test coverage over time and between different code components. Additionally, you can compare your test coverage with industry standards, best practices, or benchmarks. Furthermore, analyze the correlation between your test coverage and your code quality indicators, such as defect rate, code complexity, or technical debt. Lastly, demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of your testing efforts, such as the cost savings, customer satisfaction, or revenue growth.

Data is good, story telling with data is even better. Data can sometimes get really complicated, so using the right kind of visualization and providing narrative insights around the data you’re using is really important.

Align your test coverage with your goals and requirements

A third way to communicate the value of test coverage is to align it with your goals and requirements, both at the project and organizational level. To do this, you should understand and prioritize your testing needs and risks based on your project scope, features, and dependencies. Additionally, you should define and communicate your test coverage criteria and expectations based on quality standards, compliance regulations, or customer needs. Furthermore, you should align your test coverage with your development process and methodology such as agile, waterfall, or DevOps. Lastly, review and update your test coverage regularly to adapt to changing requirements and feedback.

Cross-functional OKR’s with specific measurable goals are a great place to align test coverage and code quality. The cross-functional aspect of this helps tie quality, system stability, security, compliance, and even developer enablement together.

Educate and inspire your team and stakeholders on test coverage

To communicate the value of test coverage, it is important to educate and inspire your team and stakeholders about it. Test coverage is not only a technical issue, but also a cultural and mindset one. You can encourage a culture of testing and quality by educating your team and stakeholders on the basics and benefits of test coverage, inspiring them with examples and stories of how test coverage helped you solve problems, deliver value, or achieve goals, encouraging them to learn and improve their testing skills and knowledge, and empowering them to take ownership and responsibility for test coverage. By doing so, you can build trust, confidence, and collaboration around your code and testing practices. Test coverage is an essential part of code quality and reliability.

Communicating the value of test coverage effectively involves education, inspiration, and empowerment. - Begin with a foundational explanation of what test coverage is and its types (e.g., statement, branch, path coverage). - Share anecdotes where test coverage played a crucial role in identifying and fixing issues. - Organize regular training sessions to improve the team’s testing skills. Introduce advanced testing tools and techniques, such as mutation testing or property-based testing. - Integrate test coverage discussions into code reviews. Encourage reviewers to ask questions about test cases and coverage. - Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable discussing testing and coverage openly.

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