Manual Test is Unsustainable
Creating automated tests can be very difficult, especially when the
code has gotten long in the tooth and was not created with automated
tests to begin with. Many product development teams don't invest in
automated tests. They think they cannot afford them. They think their
product is different and can't be manually tested. This thinking is
flawed.
Back in the products younger days, manual test was not too time
consuming. But slowly that changed. The system grows, the manual test
effort grows. Eventually, it seems that no amount of manual test effort
finds all the problems.
In this article I show a simple model that illustrates why manual
test is unsustainable and that a sustainable software product
development effort must include considerable test automation.