Using the Golden Master technique to test legacy code

Working with legacy code is a scary proposition. Generally, we lack an understanding of the application and its codebase, and we don’t have automated test coverage. In fact, in his book Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Michael Feathers defines legacy code as “code without tests”.

Therefore, before making changes to legacy code, it is important to guard against unintended changes. These days, developers are often too quick to assume unit tests are the (only) way to do this. However, in a large code base, where requirements are missing or unclear, this may not be a viable option. We could even introduce bugs by “fixing” behavior,  if downstream systems assume an existing (incorrect) behavior. Therefore, it may be important to first capture and lock down existing behavior before writing unit tests or modifying the existing code. Characterization tests are a means of capturing the existing behaviour.

To create the characterization tests, we can generate a large set of diverse inputs and run them against the existing codebase. By recording and saving these outputs, we capture the existing behavior. These outputs from the original code base are called the “Golden Master”. Later, when we need to modify the code, we can replay the same set of inputs and compare them against the original “master” outputs. Any differences between the original and new outputs help to identify unintended behaviour changes (or can be accepted if intentionally changed).

I have used this technique in real life scenarios, which previously, had been difficult to cover sufficiently with tests. The 80/20 rule applies here; we spent 80% of our time trying to cover 20% (less, really) of the fringe cases. In the end, the golden master technique has been more effective. Once in place, this technique can be combined with unit testing and other test methods.

Thanks to jbrains‘s posts on Legacy Code Retreat for introducing me to this technique. In particular, I recommend this for more information.

I will provide more details, examples, and tools for this technique in future posts.

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Update: See an example of using this technique with my follow up post, The Gilded Rose Kata and The Approval Tests Library