Spike: Testing

[DilwoarH]

Description

We need to conduct a 1-day spike to explore and identify the best testing strategies for our Submit repo. The goal is to gather enough information to make informed decisions about our testing approach, which will help improve code quality and ensure reliable functionality in our Express.js application.

Goals

• Review the current testing setup in the repository, including any existing tests for the Express.js routes and middleware.
• Explore testing frameworks and tools suitable for a Node.js and Express.js project (e.g., Mocha, Chai, Jest, Supertest). Potentially standardising with one or two libraries.
• Evaluate the feasibility of implementing these strategies within our codebase, focusing on unit testing, integration testing, and end-to-end testing for Express.js.
• Investigate best practices for testing Express.js applications, such as mocking, stubbing, and using in-memory databases.
• Document the findings, including pros, cons, and any potential challenges.
• Provide recommendations on the next steps for implementing the chosen testing strategies.

Deliverables

• A brief report summarising the findings of the spike.
• Recommendations for testing frameworks/tools to use with Node.js and Express.js.
• A plan outlining the steps for integrating the chosen testing strategy into our development workflow.

Timebox

• This spike is limited to 1 day of investigation and documentation.

Acceptance Criteria

• A document or markdown file added to the repository with the findings and recommendations.
• A short presentation or summary to the team outlining the results of the spike.

[CharliePatterson]

We will have an OKR for Q3 relating to this: something around better monitoring and testing capabilities, to ensure the stability and scalability of the platform and to capture issues before users spot them. It would be good to consider this spike in light of this - i.e. to make more concrete recommendations about the specific things we should be tackling in Q3 as part of this objective.