Enterprise Architecture Debts

Useless Test

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Description

The Useless Test EA Smell is derived from a BPM process anti-pattern. It arises when the modeled process takes into account only a subset of possible scenarios and neglects others.

Context

Derived from: “Useless Test”

Cause

A single responsibility has been split up among a large number of classes. This can happen after overzealous reduction of Multifaceted Abstraction. All was well as long as the structure stayed small. But with new components being added, making changes has become harder and harder.

Consequences

Not considering all possible outcomes in models hinders enterprise architects to analyze other outcomes and handle the unexpected behavior.

Detection

We search for element names that denote a test. Such verbs may include “evaluate,” “verify,” and “validate”. Typically, a test scenario can yield two potential outcomes, either successful or unsuccessful. Therefore, if the test element is not followed by an OR Junction or has only one leaving path presenting only one possible outcome of the test, then the model suffers from the Useless Test EA Smell.

Solution

Move existing behaviors into a single component. If there’s no component appropriate for this, create a new one. If moving code to the same element leaves the original one almost empty, try to get rid of these now-redundant components.

Example

The element “Evaluate money withdrawal request“ has only one possible output “Process money withdrawal“, but a negative case is not considered in the model.

Cypher query

MATCH p = (m)-->(n) <br /> WHERE ANY (name in $testVerbs where toLower(m.name) CONTAINS toLower(name)) <br /> and NOT EXISTS ((m)-->(:Junction {type: "or"})) <br /> RETURN p <br /> UNION  <br /> MATCH (m)-->(Junction {type: 'or'})-->(n) <br /> WITH m, COUNT (n) as testReslults <br /> WHERE testReslults=1 <br /> MATCH p=(m)-->(Junction {type: 'or'})-->(n) <br /> WHERE any (name in $testVerbs where toLower(m.name) CONTAINS toLower(name)) <br /> RETURN p

Cypher count query

MATCH p = (m)-->(n) WHERE any (name in $testVerbs where toLower(m.name) CONTAINS toLower(name)) and NOT EXISTS ((m)-->(:Junction {type: 'or'})) RETURN count(DISTINCT m)

Diagram

Diagram for Useless Test

Tags

Understandability Problems, Process

Query parameters

[
    {
        "name": "testVerbs",
        "type": "list",
        "default": [
            "test",
            "verify",
            "execute",
            "evaluate"
        ],
        "description": "List of verbs that indicates a test or verification."
    }
]

Related smells

All smells

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