daily-email: add 2023-11-02

Is code coverage an objective or guideline?

src/content/daily-email/2023-11-02.md

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+---
+title: >
+  Is code coverage an objective or guideline?
+pubDate: 2023-11-02
+permalink: >
+  archive/2023/11/02/is-code-coverage-an-objective-or-guideline
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - automated-testing
+  - test-driven-development
+---
+
+Many development teams and projects use code coverage - e.g. how many lines of code are covered by automated tests - as an objective, and saying it must be 100% or another percentage.
+
+But is this an effective metric?
+
+In the same way as deleting failing tests to fix a pipeline, a code coverage amount can be faked.
+
+With this in mind, what if, instead of setting an objective such as 100% code coverage, you used it as a guideline?
+
+If you're working on a legacy project, what if you set a minimum code coverage amount as a guideline to ensure any new code has tests by not dropping under that level?
+
+Would that be better than saying every line of code needs to be covered?
+
+Code coverage is something I'm thinking of using more, so I want to know what you think.