[mbrodersen]

100% agree. The faster you can make your feedback loop, the more productive you will be. That’s why automated tests can be a super power. But only (as with everything else) when done right. So how do you know you are doing it right? When your automated tests save more of your time than the time it takes to maintain them. It’s really that simple.

In my experience I get those benefits when testing at the system/use case level but not when doing unit tests. At that higher level automated tests works wonderfully. I haven’t had a bug in production for 5+ years because of test automation. Which means that I spend 95% or more of my time adding new features or optimisations instead of bug hunting and/or getting shouted at because of customer problems. Love it!