One of the best things about unit testing is that your code will become easier to test as you do it. Preexisting code created without tests is always a challenge because since they weren't meant to be unit-tested, it's not rare to have a high level of coupling between classes, hard-to-configure objects inside your class - like an e-mail sending service reference - and so on. But don't let this bring you down! You'll see that your overall code design will become better as you start to write unit-tests, and the more you test, the more confident you'll become on making even more changes to it without fear of breaking you application or introducing bugs.

There are several reasons to unit-test your code, but as time progresses, you'll find out that the time you save on testing is one of the best reasons to do it. In a system I've just delivered, I insisted on doing automated unit-testing in spite of the claims that I'd spend way more time doing the tests than I would by testing the system manually. With all my unit tests done, I run more than 400 test cases in less than 10 minutes, and every time I had to do a small change in the code, all it took me to be sure the code was still working without bugs was ten minutes. Can you imagine the time one would spend to run those 400+ test cases by hand?

当涉及到自动化测试——无论是单元测试还是验收测试——每个人都认为编写可以手动完成的代码是浪费精力，有时这是真的——如果你计划只运行一次测试的话。自动化测试最好的部分是，您可以毫不费力地运行它们几次，并且在第二次或第三次运行之后，您所浪费的时间和精力已经得到了补偿。

最后一个建议是，不仅要对代码进行单元测试，还要先进行测试(详见TDD和BDD)。

当涉及到重构或重写一段代码时，单元测试也特别有用。如果您有良好的单元测试覆盖率，您就可以满怀信心地进行重构。如果没有单元测试，通常很难确保您没有破坏任何东西。

关于单元测试要记住的一件事是，它对开发人员来说是一种安慰。

相反，功能测试是针对用户的:无论何时添加功能测试，您都是在测试用户将看到的东西。当您添加单元测试时，您只是让开发人员的生活更轻松。在这方面有点奢侈。

当您必须在编写单元或功能测试之间做出选择时，请记住这种二分法。

单元测试的一个好处是，它们可以作为说明代码行为方式的文档。好的测试有点像参考实现，团队成员可以通过查看它们来了解如何将他们的代码与您的代码集成。

单元测试的全部意义在于使测试变得简单。这是自动的。“make test”就完成了。如果您面临的问题之一是难以测试代码，那么这就是使用单元测试的最佳理由。

简而言之——是的。它们值得你付出每一分努力……在某种程度上。在一天结束的时候，测试仍然是代码，并且很像典型的代码增长，您的测试最终将需要重构，以便可维护和可持续。有一大堆的陷阱!当涉及到单元测试时，但是没有什么，我的意思是没有什么比丰富的单元测试集更能让开发人员更自信地进行更改了。

I'm working on a project right now.... it's somewhat TDD, and we have the majority of our business rules encapuslated as tests... we have about 500 or so unit tests right now. This past iteration I had to revamp our datasource and how our desktop application interfaces with that datasource. Took me a couple days, the whole time I just kept running unit tests to see what I broke and fixed it. Make a change; Build and run your tests; fix what you broke. Wash, Rinse, Repeat as necessary. What would have traditionally taken days of QA and boat loads of stress was instead a short and enjoyable experience.

提前准备，一点点额外的努力，当你不得不开始摆弄核心特性/功能时，它会给你带来十倍的回报。

我买了这本书——它是xUnit测试知识的圣经——它可能是我书架上被引用最多的书之一，我每天都在查阅它:链接文本