---
title: >
  Test to save your job
pubDate: 2023-09-24
permalink: >-
  daily/2023/09/24/test-to-save-your-job
tags:
  - software-development
  - automated-testing
  - test-driven-development
---

I've recently been going through my YouTube "Watch Later" list and watching (or rewatching) videos of conference and meetup talks that I saved to watch later.

Today's talk was by Matt Stauffer at one of the previous Laracon conferences.

I've quoted Matt previously when explaining what to test on applications. The answer: "The thing you'd lose your job for if it broke".

In this talk, Matt has a slide that goes further into this, titled "Test to save your job".

## What Matt said

The best place to start your tests is by asking yourself: "What part of this app, if broken, would make me worried for my job?"

* What's most likely to break?
* What do I have the least control over?
* What are we about to refactor?
* What would make my clients stress out?
* What would make me stressed out?

## What about you?

Do you have any other ways to decide what code to test? Reply and let me know, as I'd love to know.