Interaction Based Testing Terminology

What we use to call "stubs and drivers" is seeing new life in the agile community.

Isolation based design is a better name for this metholology.

• dummy - an object that you pass just because you have to pass something, required but nothing is actually done with it
• fake - an object that just doesn't do a good enough job to be the real thing
• stub - fake that returns a set of canned data designed to interact with your test case
• spy - stub that keeps track of the data that is passed to it
• mock - spy that takes a set of expectation ahead of time

From Google presentation, GTAC 2007: Heusser & McMillan - Interaction Based Testing.

Interaction testing is not the only thing, it is not a golden hammer. It needs to be balanced with all the other types of appropriate test methodologies (unit, load, functional, acceptance, system, etc.). Careful when you champion a test technology, be balanced.

mockobjects.com