An Introduction to Quality Assurance (8 tags)
The libraries and syntax for automated testing are easy to find. The mindset of quality and testability is harder to adopt. Tom McTighe reviews the basic principles of quality assurance that can make the difference between a "working" application and a high-quality application.
Test-Driven Development in Python (3 tags)
The goal of test-driven development is not to produce tests; they're merely a helpful by-product. The real goal is to produce elegant, working code. Jason Diamond demonstrates how test-driven development works using Python and PyUnit to create a sample event-tracking utility.
Mock Objects in Unit Tests (2 tags)
Unit testing your code against a service or process that's either too expensive (commercial databases) or just not done yet is something you can deal with by simulating the other piece with a mock object. EasyMock can suffice in some cases, but it can only create mock objects for interfaces. Mocquer, based on the Dunamis project, can create mocks for classes, too. Lu Jian shows how it works.
Perl Code Kata: Testing Databases (2 tags)
Testing simple code is all well and good, but what happens when your real code has to work with external programs, such as databases? How do you test your code adequately without going crazy writing scaffolding that has no chance of working anywhere but your test box? Stevan Little suggests that DBD::Mock can round out your test toolbox nicely in this Perl Test Kata.