This list is for a maintainer who already uses a coding agent and needs to decide whether the tests prove the requested behavior. The first item is a $9 workbook that sets the expected behavior before the agent edits and records what the tests actual...
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Check the behavior before you accept the batch
Name the gap a green suite can hide
Check the behavior before you accept the batch
Start with the workbook for one change, then read the books that say what a unit test proves, what a developer should verify, and how examples become the specification.
Use this when a coding agent writes the change and the tests, and a green run is the only evidence you have. Make AI-Written Tests Prove the Behavior You Need is a $9 workbook for one feature, fix, or integration. You write the observable behavior be...
Make AI-Written Tests Prove the Behavior You Need
Use this when the suite is green and you still cannot say what a single test would reject. Vladimir Khorikov's Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns explains styles and patterns that make a unit test describe behavior rather than implement...
Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns
Use this when the developer who writes the code also has to decide what the tests should verify. Alexander Tarlinder's Developer Testing is about building quality into software, including unit tests, specification-based techniques, and test doubles. ...
Developer Testing: Building Quality into Software
Use this when the requested behavior is an acceptance example and a useful test should fail if that example is wrong. Markus Gärtner's ATDD by Example is a practical guide to acceptance test-driven development. The Barnes & Noble English ebook wa...
ATDD by Example
Use this when the specification is a set of examples and the code should be judged against those examples. Gojko Adzic's Specification by Example describes how teams use concrete examples as a living specification. The Barnes & Noble English eboo...
Specification by Example
Name the gap a green suite can hide
Use these when you need tests that grow a design, a human tour, a team testing guide, a catalog of pitfalls, or a reference for test-code smells.
Use this when the tests should describe how objects collaborate and the design should grow from those tests. Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce's Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests uses mock objects to state relationships and lets the tests p...
Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
Use this when the automated suite is green and a person still needs to look for a defect the suite was not written to catch. James Whittaker's Exploratory Software Testing organizes that search into tours and techniques for test design. The Barnes &a...
Exploratory Software Testing
Use this when a team needs a shared picture of testing, from examples through automation to exploratory work. Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory's Agile Testing is a practical guide for testers and agile teams. The Barnes & Noble English ebook was $5...
Agile Testing
Use this when the suite looks busy and you want names for the ways testing still misses the failure you care about. Donald Firesmith's Common System and Software Testing Pitfalls catalogs testing anti-patterns with their symptoms, consequences, cause...
Common System and Software Testing Pitfalls
Use this when the test code itself is hard to trust and you need a catalog of smells, fixtures, and doubles. Gerard Meszaros's xUnit Test Patterns is a reference for refactoring test code. The Barnes & Noble English ebook was $76.99 and in stock ...