Hmmm...what I'm hearing you say is that, during development, tests should be written not just for individual routines but for larger and larger blocks of routines.

That sounds good.

I do worry about the possibility of combinatorial explosion in the number of elements that will be tested...but that's probably a false concern, since you only need to worry about testing blocks of routines that are actually used together. Hmm.

At the same time, I don't think you can do away with the acceptance testing phase. The point of that phase is not to reveal bugs...the point is to prove TO THE CUSTOMER that the product works as required.

Thanks, this is definitely the kind of thing I was looking for.