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Managed Chaos
Naresh Jain's Random Thoughts on Software Development and Adventure Sports
     
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Behavior (verbs) as Test Class Names

For the last 3 odd years, I’ve been exploring the use of behavior (verbs, instead of Nouns, Test) as my test class names. The verb describes what behavior you expect from your system (program).

For example for a Veterinarian Information System (system responsible for billing and patient history), I would have tests called:

ChargeAccountForServices with the following test methods:

  • makePaymentsAgainstAnAccount()
  • completePaymentsResultInZeroAmountDueOnReceipt()
  • incompletePaymentsDisplaysDueAmountOnTheReceipt()

Another test class: GenerateBillsForClientAccount with

  • notifyIfAccountIsNotDueForPayment()
  • billContainsTotalCostOfAllServicesTaken()

And another test class: ManageClientVisits with

  • trackAllServicesTakenByThePatient()
  • skipVisitIfPatientDidNotTakeAnyService()

These tests helped us flush out Objects like Account, Procedure, Visit and so on…. When we started we had no idea we’ll need these objects.

This style is mostly influenced from a pairing session with Corey Haines post our discussion about “There is no Spoon” @ the SDTConf 2006.

For more about this approach…read my last post…There is No Spoon (Objects)


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