Can you do unit / integration tests without creating test codes?

Question

In our project, test procedures and expected test results (test specifications) are created in a document. Then we test on the embedded product / release. No test codes or test tools are used here.

Is this acceptable for unit / integration testing?

Answer 1

What you do is manual testing.

Manual testing for determination is not and can never be unit testing.

Manual testing can be used to test integration, and in fact it should be used to some extent, since automated tests cannot detect all forms of unforeseen error conditions. Especially errors related to the layout and things that do not “look right” (which is quite common in web applications).

However, if you do not have automated tests at all, this means that your application is not sufficiently tested, period. Since it is completely impossible to measure every detailed aspect of the application for each release, no organization will be willing or able to pay for the efforts that will be required.

Answer 2

Is this acceptable for device / integration testing?

Not. what you describe is neither a module nor integration testing, it takes an assembly to walk around the block to get a cup of coffee.

Answer 3

Unit testing - as I understand it - testing individual units of code. It is relatively low level and is usually developed at the same time as the code itself.

To do this, you also need to work in the code, and ultimately the code that performs these tests is a testing tool, even if for some reason you are not using the framework.

So, no, if you are not using testing tools or testing code, you are not doing unit testing.

Theoretically, you can do integration testing manually, but it is still unreliable because people tend to be inconsistent and expensive because people are slower than cars.

Ultimately, the more tests you can automate, the faster and more accurate your tests will be, and the more you free up your QA character to test things that can only be verified manually.

Answer 4

Unit testing and integration are two different things, and what is “acceptable” depends entirely on your organization. This may be acceptable for testing the system, and not for each unit separately.

Personally, I am not a fan of automated unit testing, because the vast majority of problems that I encounter are those things that are only ever found in the context of a system test.

I tend to evolve gradually, so that as I work on it grows, it becomes its own test harness, and the basics are proven to be solid before creating anything on them.

I would like to be able to automate system testing. It reveals everything that I would never have thought of in a million years of writing unit tests.