Engineers Don’t Write Tests, But It’s Not Their Fault. Here’s Why

Every engineer would prefer an excellent development experience, and every company stakeholder wants engineers to “ship fast” — but sometimes management can’t see that investing capital in “good practice” (like automated software testing) is what unlocks “shipping fast” — so tests don’t get written. Here’s why.

Me when I join a software team with plenty of code, but no tests. Photo: krakenimages on Unsplash

I read a quote about software testing today that resonated with me, because it’s been so true in my experience. Does it resonate with you?

“I’ve still never seen a codebase at an employer with tests in it that I didn’t write myself, and frankly, I barely have the energy on the median team these days — management gets upset because they fundamentally don’t believe me when I say knowing if your code works lets you ship faster.” —Ludic 2024

Yes, knowing if your code works lets you ship faster, but some companies — not all, but some — just don’t seem to care the least bit about testing. 🥲

Once upon a time, I worked as a frontend software engineer at a company that put a big emphasis on Cypress end-to-end (e2e) tests. That same company recruited…