Should I test that?

Should I test that?

One decision per testing question: yes, no, or the conditions under which a test pays off. Every answer follows one published framework.

How decisions are made

Decide for your case

Blast radius

Who is affected if this fails?

Change frequency

How often does this code or behaviour change?

Detectability

Without a test, when would someone notice a failure?

Reversibility

If it fails, can you undo the damage?

Test cost

What would a useful test cost to write and to keep working?

Result

Answer all five questions to see the decision. 0 of 5 answered.

Nothing you enter here leaves your browser. The tool runs the published rules locally and makes no network requests.

Questions by area

  • Code

    Which parts of your own code deserve a test: private methods, getters, logging, migrations and other small pieces.

  • AI and LLM products

    How to test products built on models: prompts, LLM outputs, retrieval, agents and model upgrades.

  • Product decisions

    Whether prototypes, MVPs, internal tools, experiments and code under deadline need tests at all.

  • Test depth

    How far to go: coverage targets, E2E for every page, regression tests, snapshots and mutation testing.

  • External boundaries

    What to test where your code meets third-party APIs, ORMs, queues, payments, email and webhooks.

  • Interface

    What to test in the interface: CSS, layouts, animations, accessibility, visual regression and copy.

  • Data and state

    How to test data and state: production data, migrations, caching, race conditions, dates and time zones.

  • Regulated environments

    What to test when the law is involved: audit logs, health data, consent, retention, access control and encryption.

  • Security

    Which security behaviours need their own tests: injection, XSS, auth, rate limits, sessions and dependencies.

  • Infrastructure and CI

    Whether to test infrastructure code, Dockerfiles, pipelines, deployment scripts, health checks and alerts.

  • Mobile

    What to test in mobile apps: real devices, OS versions, offline mode, push notifications and deep links.

  • Practices

    Testing practices under question: tests first, testing in production, manual testing, flaky tests and types.