Testing Numbs Us to Our Loss of Intellectual Control

I've been reflecting on how we used to develop software in the 1990s compared to what I see today. One thing that stands out is that everyone is testing. Testing, testing, testing. What a difference! Having those tests gives us confidence that evolution of the code is not breaking anything. I don’t know what I would do if my project’s tests were lost. So, how did we ever get code out the door before we had automated regression testing? I think the answer has many parts, and it includes ideas that we should not resurrect, including individual ownership of modules, quarterly product releases (or worse), wholeprogram specifications, and lots of manual testing.