Laws in Software Development: The Broken Windows Theory in E2E Test Automation and Continuous Testing

Always keep your automated E2E tests clean and PASS!

This article is one of the “Laws in Software Development” series:

• 80/20 Rule

• Broken Window Theory

• Parkinson’s Law: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

• Sturgeon’s law: “ninety percent of everything is crap”

• Murphy’s law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”

• The 10,000-Hour Rule: “The key to achieving true expertise is simply a matter of practicing”

• Brooks’ Law: “Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.”

• Hosftadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”

• Conway’s Law: “Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.”

• KISS principle: “Keep it Simple, Stupid”

• …

Table of Contents:
· The Broken Window Theory
· The Broken Window Theory in the classic “Pragmatic Programmer” book
· The Broken Window Theory in E2E Test Automation
· The Broken Window Theory in Continuous Testing

The Broken Window Theory

The theory is named after an analogy used to explain it. If a window in a building is broken and remains unrepaired for too long, the rest of the windows in that building will eventually be broken, too.

According to James Q. Wilson and George Kelling (the creators), that’s because the unrepaired window acts as a signal to people in that neighbourhood that they can break windows without fear of consequence because nobody cares enough to stop it or fix it. [source]

Broken Windows Theory is a proven theory. It was popularized in the 1990s by New York City police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose policing policies were influenced by the theory.

“It (‘Broken Windows Theory) is widely credited with reducing the murder rate in New York from 26.5 to 3.3 per 100,000 people.” — [source]

There are doubts about the above claim, but that is outside the scope of this article. The fact is that many people were aware of The Broken Windows Theory from NY Police Policy; it meant something.

The Broken Window Theory in the classic “Pragmatic Programmer” book

Some readers might wonder, “How does this theory relate to software development?”

Programmers have read or heard of the classic “The Pragmatic Programmer, from journeyman to master” book. The authors, Andrew Hunt & David Thomas (also two co-authors of the Agile Manifesto), wrote about the “Broken Windows Theory” on Page 5 (first edition, published in 2000)

If you are a software engineer and work on an ‘agile’ project, I strongly recommend getting this book. (I purchased both editions)

In this article, I just focus on the application of the ‘broken window theory’ in Software Testing.

The Broken Window Theory in E2E Test Automation

What’s the ultimate core of E2E Test Automation? The test scripts, right?