Testing and Teaching

Testing designs, testing software, testing documents.

We need to teach students that testing is part of all product development.

Instead, we focus on details that overlook the final deliverables.

We edit documents for grammar and spelling. We check code for “standard” formatting. We compare designs to theories, grading accordingly.

Do we test what students create? More importantly, do we ask them to test their creations?

Forget what is “correct” in the land of prescriptive, proscribed rules. We obsess over the rules when the works being created might not be usable (or useful). What good is a “correct” design or document that doesn’t meet the needs of a genuine audience?

Make testing part of what you teach. Make it as important or more important than following arbitrary rules.

I understand that rules help us communicate. They help us pass along code or designs to other team members. Rules have a purpose. Yet, are we focused so much on the rules that we forget a good finished product is one that others will use?

Just a random rant after a week of watching classes that were all about the “correct” indents and the “correct” naming conventions, with more points awarded for following rules than creating working code.