These slides are for a talk I gave at AnDevCon DC 2017:
http://www.andevcon.com/dc2017/sessions#SuperchargeYourAutomatedTestingwithComponentandIntegrationTests
You can hear a video of the presentation here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTzAFoQQcCo
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SUMMARY
You've probably heard of unit tests and UI tests, but what about component and integration tests?
Component and integration tests are critical layers in the test automation pyramid. They speed up your development and release cycles, reduce risk in your project, and they even provide hidden benefits like infrastructure monitoring!
This talk covers:
- why we write automated tests
- the differences between unit tests, component tests, integration tests and UI tests
- how to decide which kinds of tests to write
- the secret benefits of component and integration tests.
Themes in this talk are:
- don't be ideological, know when and why to write automated tests
- unit tests often leave gaps and need to be refactored whenever the implementation changes, so higher level tests are important ("the whole is greater than the sum of the parts")
- it's important to automate everything, this is a key skill in multiplying your impact as a developer.