[caillougris]

> I don't know any time unit testing has actually benefited shipping faster

It's of huge benefits to me when I have to make a small tweak (fix a bug, or add a new specific corner case) into an existing codebase that I didn't write and don't know very well. Being able to make a small change and being confident that it will not send everything burning in hell.

[datavirtue]

This, and any code base of significant size is unknowable and starts to produce bugs naturally. Requiring tests and verifying minimum coverage are a few things you can do to control the death spiral.

I have worked on large systems devoid of tests. Not recommended. I literally witnessed multi-million dollar losses that would have been prevented by requiring tests.