[collyw]

How do I know this?

Because I have on numerous occasions tried to get tests set up, and every time another feature request / data model change comes up before I get anywhere close to building all the related objects required for the tests I want to run. (I agree it is integration tests I need rather than low level stuff that proves the framework works as expected).

The majority of the bugs I see I would not have written a test for anyway, as they are usually subtle interactions between the objects and a variation that were not anticipated in the feature request.

The design is constantly changing, as I work for a DNA sequencing centre and the technology is constantly advancing. A few bugs would have been caught by automatic testing, but not so many considering the time it seems to take me to get them put together.

It is different working for a big corporate entity that has the resources to devote to these things, but in our case we don't.