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Field notes · September 2026

Adding tests to software a business uses every day.

For a fur-buying business, improving software also meant checking that customer enquiries, offers, and follow-up kept working.

← All writing

Mano Swartz Furs uses software I built to manage its fur-buying program, including customer photos, appraisal drafts, messages, and phone enquiries. The business continued using it while I made improvements.

Automated tests help check that a change hasn’t broken behavior the business depends on. The recorded suite grew from 953 to 1,627 tests across 63 files by the September 2026 check.

What the number tells you

The count describes the checks in that suite. It doesn’t prove the software has no defects, or tell you by itself how valuable each test is. The important question is whether the checks cover behavior people need to rely on.

In this project, that behavior sits around real work: reviewing customer photos, preparing offers, and keeping track of enquiries. The project record includes 20,054 photos returned to the client’s Google Drive and 689 enquiry records across 491 callers.

What I’d carry into another project

I’d start by identifying the actions people cannot afford to lose when the software changes. Then I’d make those actions part of the checks used to review a change.

If you’re nervous about changing software your business relies on, tests are one part of the investigation. Clear requirements, reliable data, and a way to recover from a failed update matter too.

Related work: Mano Swartz Furs

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