C++ and Video Game Development: I Do not have Time to Write Tests!

On more than one occasion during conversations around automating tests, I have heard a programmer say "I don't have time to write tests!"

Why?

1) Any programmer that submits code without compiling the source file, please leave a comment.

2) Okay, of the programmers that at least compile their source, do they build the entire project locally? If not, leave a comment.

It is ok. You aren't part of the team until you break the build for everyone...

3) If you are building for more than one platform, do you compile and link on all platforms before submitting a change? If not, leave a comment.

Screw those guys doing the PS3 port. They are jerks!

4) Of the programmers that compile, link and build for all platforms, how many run their changes under a debugger to prove (at least to themselves) it works? (Leave a comment)

5) Of the programmers that compile, link, build for all platforms and test locally, have found that their features have been wrecked by changes from other developers (artists, designers, programmers)? Comments should be full of this.

To illustrate the point, every project I have worked on has seen violations of all 5 scenarios. I will confess that I am also guilty of some or all of them. It happens and we learn :)

How much time, as the complexity of the project increases each iteration, is spent dealing with feature regression, technical debt and system fragility?

When a live service, earning millions of dollars each iteration, goes tits over an untested feature, leads to a panicked rush to fix it now now now!!! and then leads to a cascade of fail, is it time to consider, as my angry sage and friend Jonathan Tanner said: "slowing down to move faster?"

Most programmers that have been in the business for a while suffer under a completely different regime: they know what to do, but pointy-haired bosses make doing the right thing impossible!

This majority of engineers should take this little bit of wisdom to heart: producers do not produce code. Business managers have no business to sell without your work. They regard you as freaking wizards. Be honest with them about the costs of doing a bad job.