Chris, thanks for the important points you mentioned!

I didn’t know about the opposite approaches that the US and Japan took. That’s quite intriguing. The standard advice I read on the web is, pretty much, “unit test everything,” although almost every developer I know has a painful story to share about unit tests. Testing from the user’s end sounds like a really good approach, and a much leaner one.

Also, you’re touching on a really important point when you talk about longevity. Many projects don’t even survive a couple of years, so unit testing won’t really reduce any technical debt — it can’t really rack up it such a short timeframe.

Thanks again for your thoughts!