What A Test Plan Is And Why Every Code Review Needs One

Core points:

• Actually show that your code works when you submit your code for review. You do this with something called a "test plan".
• Be visual if you can. The best thing to attach is a video or a .gif. A step down is attaching a screenshot.
  • If you're working on APIs, you can attach a screenshot of a curl or Postman
  • Whatever you're doing to verify that your code works, capture that in your test plan
• Benefits of having a test plan:
  • Basic trust token showing your teammates that your code works, at least in the core flow
  • Turns your code review into a much more informative and self-documented piece of codebase history
  • Makes it far easier for people not to break whatever is in your code review when they work with it in the future
• Show a repeatable way to test your change
  • If you're adding automated tests, include the command to run it
  • With a video, show the full process of triggering the flow altered by the commit (e.g. tapping into a certain screen on a website)

Related resources:

• Concrete example of what a good test plan looks like (with GitHub link)
• One Diff, One Thesis - What Every Code Review Should Be Like
• "How can I write great code faster?"
• Avoid These Junior Engineer Mistakes With Code Review