Testing Strategy Decision Examples

Positive example — risk-aligned levels

• Context: a workflow has pure decision logic plus a persistent boundary.
• Mode: integration-balanced.
• Decision: test decision outcomes at a focused public boundary and add integration evidence for persistence mapping and transaction behavior.
• Why it fits: each credible risk is tested at the narrowest boundary that can expose it.
• Rejected alternative: verify every outcome through a broad end-to-end environment.

Negative example — private-structure lock-in

• Context: a refactor preserves the public behavior of a reusable component.
• Mode: unit-focused.
• Bad decision: assert private helper calls, internal fields, and exact collaboration order.
• Why it fails: tests reject safe restructuring without improving contract evidence.
• Better decision: assert observable outputs, errors, and documented side effects.