[dagss]

Sounds like you are writing tests at the wrong level then.

I was talking about a regression test for a fix for a bug found in production. For a typical backend, write such tests against the publicly exposed API.

If you end up breaking tests as you refactor it means that you have broken backwards compatability for others who use the API...

[wvenable]

We seem to be talking at cross-purposes here. I agree that tests enforce backwards compatibility (or compatibility in general) but they also enforce a particular design. Fundamentally redesigning something generally involves breaking the testa and the API.

To put it another way, if you never break your tests you can only ever fix bugs or add more code -- you can never remove code or redesign.