The realities of open source testing: lessons learned from “Adopt pytest month”

Ever feel like your open source project could be better tested? Lack of tests holding you back from contributors but you don’t know where to start? You’re not alone.

“Adopt pytest month” was held in April 2015. Pytest volunteers were paired with open source software projects, to find a path to better testing with pytest. Projects varied from libraries/command line utilities, to a browser, to a complex Django app. In some cases converting existing tests was necessary, in others writing the first tests in existence for non-trivial amounts of code. Two projects were open sourced specifically to take part in “adopt pytest month”. What began as an experiment in increasing software audience proved to be an interesting exercise in strengthening community and most valuable of all, provided a newcomer’s perspective to veteran contributors.

This talk will discuss what worked well with “adopt pytest month”, what didn’t, what we learned about pytest and what you could take away for your open source project, be it an improved testing environment or an improved contributor community. A basic knowledge of testing and pytest will be useful.