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Is the Impact Scope of This Change Clearly Understood?

Type: Structure, DeepDive Category: Test
Audience: Engineers writing tests, reviewers checking risk, or teams preparing releases

🔍 What This Perspective Covers

Testing is not only about what changed—
but what the change might touch.

⚠️ Blind Spot Patterns

  • Code paths modified, but dependent behavior left untested
  • Flags or conditionals hide risk in less-used flows
  • Shared components updated with no regression test sweep
  • Devs test “the feature” but not “the impact”

âś… Safer Impact Modeling

  • Map upstream and downstream dependencies for the change
  • Use code search or coverage diff tools to explore affected areas
  • Review “what else calls this”—not just what’s inside
  • Treat shared utilities or schemas as multi-context risks
  • Ask “who would be surprised by this change?”

🧠 Key Principle

Good testing is risk tracing.
Not just behavior checking.

âť“ FAQ

  • Q: Isn’t test coverage enough?
    A: No. Coverage doesn’t mean the right behavior is tested.

  • Q: Should reviewers repeat what CI does?
    A: No. Reviewers should think beyond it.