Double-Entry Bookkeeping

Hi,

An error in accounting can be costly. Especially in large companies, where there are many transactions, it is easy to overlook one.

And when that happens, I might not even notice it. Perhaps the company is doing much better than the books indicate? Or maybe it’s actually unprofitable?

Merchants in the 13th century recognized the problem. A system had to be found that would make errors less likely. They invented double-entry bookkeeping.

In this form of accounting, all transactions are recorded twice in the books. A kind of counter-calculation is made to ensure that no mistake has been made.

What double-entry bookkeeping is for accountants and tax advisors, writing tests is for us developers.

Nowadays, software can be found in all areas of life: in cars, in hospitals, at railway crossings, in the control tower at the airport, in emergency call centers, in industrial machines. I bet you can spot over 10 processors if you look around briefly.

Precisely because software is everywhere - especially in vital areas - it’s so important that we don’t make mistakes.

Of course, no one can achieve this. And that’s exactly why we have to secure ourselves. When we write code, we must test it. We have to do double-entry bookkeeping.

And as obvious as this sounds - I still encounter discussions about the sensibility and “waste of time” of unit tests.

In accounting, no one would think of questioning double-entry bookkeeping…

…but they also had 600 more years to establish this discipline.

Rule the Backend,

~ Marcus