{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T11:11:26Z","timestamp":1778497886160,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Walter de Gruyter GmbH","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]],"date-time":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767225600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005357","name":"Slovak Research and Development Agency","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["APVV-23-0408"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["APVV-23-0408"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005357","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>This paper presents the results of an empirical study investigating the impact of unit test quality on the development time, the ability to solve all tasks, the perceived software understanding, and the presence of adequate feedback. For this purpose, an application was developed with two test suites, one containing high-quality tests and the other low-quality tests. The study was performed on 53 graduate students of computer science, who were randomly divided into three groups: students with high-quality tests (Q), students with low-quality tests (L), and students with no tests (N). The goal was to observe the differences between the groups when solving different tasks. Based on the results obtained, it can be said that a significant time difference could be discovered between the groups Q and L, as the Q group completed the individual tasks in a shorter time. In addition, a connection between the presence of quality tests and having adequate feedback has been found, though there was no significant difference in perceived code understanding or ability to solve all tasks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1515\/comp-2025-0051","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T16:24:51Z","timestamp":1773159891000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["High-quality versus low-quality unit tests: a controlled experiment on\u00a0developer performance"],"prefix":"10.1515","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Patr\u00edcia","family":"J\u00e1rosiov\u00e1","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Ko\u0161ice , Ko\u0161ice , Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sergej","family":"Chodarev","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Ko\u0161ice , Ko\u0161ice , Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"374","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_001","unstructured":"L. Koskela, Effective Unit Testing: A Guide for Java Developers, New York, Manning Publications Co. LLC, 2013."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_002","unstructured":"V. Khorikov, Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns, New York, Manning Publications Co. LLC, 2020."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_003","unstructured":"K. Beck and C. Andres, Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd ed., 11. print, Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_004","unstructured":"J. Humble and D. Farley, Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases Through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation, 7th printing 2013, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Addison-Wesley, 2011."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"P. Copeland, \u201cGoogle\u2019s innovation factory: Testing, culture, and infrastructure,\u201d in 2010 Third International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation, Paris, France, IEEE, 2010, pp.\u00a011\u201314.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICST.2010.65"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D. G. Feitelson, E. Frachtenberg, and K. L. Beck, \u201cDevelopment and deployment at Facebook,\u201d IEEE Internet Comput., vol.\u00a017, no.\u00a04, pp.\u00a08\u201317, 2013, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/MIC.2013.25.","DOI":"10.1109\/MIC.2013.25"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"V. Garousi, M. Felderer, M. Kuhrmann, K. Herkilo\u011flu, and S. Eldh, \u201cExploring the industry\u2019s challenges in software testing: An empirical study,\u201d J. Softw.: Evol. Process, vol.\u00a032, no.\u00a08, 2020, Art. no. e2251, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/smr.2251.","DOI":"10.1002\/smr.2251"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"W. Bissi, A. G. Serra Seca Neto, and M. C. F. P. Emer, \u201cThe effects of test driven development on internal quality, external quality and productivity: A systematic review,\u201d Inf. Softw. Technol., vol. 74, no. C, pp. 45\u201354, 2016. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2016.02.004.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2016.02.004"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"P. J\u00e1rosiov\u00e1 and S. Chodarev, \u201cThe impact of unit test quality on software development: Controlled experiment,\u201d in 2024 IEEE 17th International Scientific Conference on Informatics (Informatics), 2024, pp.\u00a094\u201399.","DOI":"10.1109\/Informatics62280.2024.10900819"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_010","unstructured":"P. Mahajan, \u201cDifferent types of testing in software testing,\u201d Int. Res. J. Eng. Technol., vol.\u00a03, no.\u00a04, 2016."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_011","unstructured":"M. Fowler, \u201cUnit test.\u201d 2014, https:\/\/martinfowler.com\/bliki\/UnitTest.html [Accessed: 05 03, 2025]."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_012","unstructured":"A. Hunt and D. Thomas, Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java with JUnit, 1st ed., Raleigh, The Pragmatic Programmers LLC, 2003."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_013","unstructured":"G. Meszaros, xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code, 1st ed., Boston, United States, Pearson Education, 2007."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_014","unstructured":"A. Spillner and T. Linz, Software Testing Foundations, 5th ed., San Rafael, California, Rocky Nook, 2021."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_015","unstructured":"M. Fowler and K. Beck, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, 2nd ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2019, p.\u00a0448."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. Peruma, K. Almalki, C. D. Newman, M. W. Mkaouer, A. Ouni, and F. Palomba, \u201ctsDetect: An open source test smells detection tool,\u201d in Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event USA, ACM, 2020, pp.\u00a01650\u20131654.","DOI":"10.1145\/3368089.3417921"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_017","unstructured":"\u201cDatatab \u2013 Online statistics calculator,\u201d DATAtab e.U. Graz, Austria. https:\/\/datatab.net [Accessed: 01 04 2023]."},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"T. Bhat and N. Nagappan, \u201cEvaluating the efficacy of test-driven development: Industrial case studies,\u201d in 2006 ACM\/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, ser. ISESE \u201906, New York, NY, USA, Association for Computing Machinery, 2006, pp.\u00a0356\u2013363.","DOI":"10.1145\/1159733.1159787"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. Sanchez, L. Williams, and E. Maximilien, \u201cOn the sustained use of a test-driven development practice at IBM,\u201d in Agile 2007 (AGILE 2007), Washington, DC, IEEE, 2007, pp.\u00a05\u201314.","DOI":"10.1109\/AGILE.2007.43"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L. Williams, G. Kudrjavets, and N. Nagappan, \u201cOn the effectiveness of unit test automation at microsoft,\u201d in 2009 20th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Mysuru, Karnataka, India, IEEE, 2009, pp.\u00a081\u201389.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISSRE.2009.32"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L. Gren and V. Antinyan, \u201cOn the relation between unit testing and code quality,\u201d in 2017 43rd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), Vienna, Austria, IEEE, 2017, pp.\u00a052\u201356.","DOI":"10.1109\/SEAA.2017.36"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. Tosun, M. Ahmed, B. Turhan, and N. Juristo, \u201cOn the effectiveness of unit tests in test-driven development,\u201d in Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Software and System Process, Gothenburg Sweden, ACM, 2018, pp.\u00a0113\u2013122.","DOI":"10.1145\/3202710.3203153"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"G. Bavota, A. Qusef, R. Oliveto, A. De Lucia, and D. Binkley, \u201cAn empirical analysis of the distribution of unit test smells and their impact on software maintenance,\u201d in 2012 28th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), Trento, Italy, IEEE, 2012, pp.\u00a056\u201365.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSM.2012.6405253"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_024","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"G. Bavota, A. Qusef, R. Oliveto, A. De Lucia, and D. Binkley, \u201cAre test smells really harmful? An empirical study,\u201d Empir. Softw. Eng., vol.\u00a020, no.\u00a04, pp.\u00a01052\u20131094, 2015, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10664-014-9313-0.","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-014-9313-0"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_025","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D. Spadini, F. Palomba, A. Zaidman, M. Bruntink, and A. Bacchelli, \u201cOn the relation of test smells to software code quality,\u201d in 2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), Madrid, IEEE, 2018, pp.\u00a01\u201312.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSME.2018.00010"},{"key":"2026051110242896752_j_comp-2025-0051_ref_026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"G. Grano, C. De Iaco, F. Palomba, and H. C. Gall, \u201cPizza versus Pinsa: On the perception and measurability of unit test code quality,\u201d in 2020 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), Adelaide, Australia, IEEE, 2020, pp.\u00a0336\u2013347.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSME46990.2020.00040"}],"container-title":["Open Computer Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.degruyterbrill.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/comp-2025-0051\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.degruyterbrill.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/comp-2025-0051\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T10:24:38Z","timestamp":1778495078000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.degruyterbrill.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/comp-2025-0051\/html"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,11]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1515\/comp-2025-0051"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1515\/comp-2025-0051","relation":{},"ISSN":["2299-1093"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2299-1093","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]]},"article-number":"20250051"}}