---
title: >
  Why it's important to see the test fail
pubDate: 2023-05-06
permalink: >-
  daily/2023/05/06/why-its-important-to-see-the-test-fail
tags:
  - automated-testing
  - test-driven-development
---

With automated testing and test-driven development, it's important to see a test fail.
If a test passes straight away, how do you know that you're testing the right thing? You could be accidentally testing a different piece of functionality, or it could be a false positive.

If the functionality already exists, do you need another test for it?

When you see a test fail, you know that the functionality hasn't been implemented, that you're testing the correct thing, and you have a clear goal to work towards.

If you're fixing a bug, writing a test and seeing it fail verifies the bug exists and that, once the bug is fixed, the test will pass.

Usually, you can anticipate why a test will fail as it evolves and know when it will pass. If a test passes before I expect, I'm immediately sceptical and will look into why rather than assuming it passed for the right reasons.