Friend, can we agree that tests are a good idea? I won't scorn you for sometimes omitting them - time and budget constraints are what they are, and even the best intentioned of us sometimes have to just give our projects a lick and a promise. "Proper test coverage soon", you sweetly croon as you rock it to sleep, the knowledge that you're telling a dark, terrible lie twisting you up inside. Maybe you could just scrape enough budget together for some simple unit tests? Then, at least, you'd have "tests", right?

Testing rapidly or the need to test quickly under shortened execution cycles is not new. Rapid testing has been around for as long as software testing has existed but increases when a product release is imminent, strained, or behind schedule. There are many reasons development gets behind schedule. Similar to testing, development is prone to surprise requirements changes and increases in scope and complexity.