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Standard : Tests provide meaningful confidence in code changes

Purpose and Strategic Importance

This standard ensures tests provide reliable, actionable confidence in code changes-so teams can move fast without sacrificing stability. Good tests catch issues early, reduce rework, and support safe, frequent releases.

Aligned to our "Engineering Excellence First" policy, this standard drives delivery confidence, improves quality, and reduces failure recovery time. Without it, teams ship with uncertainty, increasing the risk of regressions and user impact.

Strategic Impact

Clearly defined impacts of meeting this standard include improved delivery flow, reduced risk, higher system resilience, and better alignment to business needs. Over time, teams will see reduced rework, faster time to value, and stronger system integrity.

Risks of Not Having This Standard

  • Reduced ability to respond to change or failure
  • Accumulation of technical debt or friction
  • Poor developer experience and morale
  • Decreased confidence in releases and features
  • Misalignment between technical implementation and business priorities

CMMI Maturity Model

  • Level 1 – Initial: Testing is inconsistent or mostly manual.

  • Level 2 – Managed: Basic automated tests are in place but lack coverage and consistency.

  • Level 3 – Defined: Testing strategies (unit, integration, E2E) are consistently applied.

  • Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed: Test effectiveness and coverage are monitored and improved.

  • Level 5 – Optimising: Testing practices are adaptive, shift-left, and integrated into continuous delivery.


Key Measures

  • Adoption metrics relevant to the standard (to be defined)
  • Quality, throughput, and system health metrics aligned to capability
  • Maturity scores based on structured assessment
Associated Policies
  • Architect for Change
  • Engineering Excellence First
Associated Practices
  • Mocking and Stubbing
  • Static Code Analysis
  • Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
  • Contract Testing
  • End-to-End (E2E) Testing
  • Exploratory Testing
  • Integration Testing
  • Mutation Testing
  • Non-functional Requirement Testing
  • Shift-Left Testing
  • Test Coverage Analysis
  • Test Data Management
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD)
  • Visual Regression Testing
Associated Measures
  • Change Failure Rate (CFR)
  • Automated Test Coverage
  • Automated Test Pass Rate
  • Code Coverage
  • Defect Escape Rate

Technical debt is like junk food - easy now, painful later.

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