What I Think About When Manually Testing My Code
Testing can mean many different things when it comes to software. I personally divide testing into two different types: automated and manual testing. Automated testing is all of the tests created with code that can be run automatically in your development environment or on a server. Manual testing, on the other hand, is when you run your code yourself using tools like a web browser, a console for testing backend changes, or an API client. For the purposes here, I am going to focus on manual testing. Here are a few thoughts on my own manual testing process.
Start by re-reading the requirements
The first thing I like to do when manually testing my own code is go back to the requirements and make sure I didn’t miss anything when I was starting to build the feature. As an engineer, I am sometimes eager to get into the code make the ideas in the requirements come to life. This eagerness makes it very easy to forget a requirement during the development process. Additionally, sometimes the process of building something can illuminate ambiguity in the requirements. Clearly, sanity checking your own thinking is a great way to begin the manual testing process.
