---
title: "RTM ready tests"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/31/rtm-ready-tests.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/31/rtm-ready-tests.html"
published: "2009-12-31T14:54:05"
updated: "2009-12-31T14:54:05"
tags: [".NET", "Agile"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "a friend came up with a good way to describe good tests the way I see them (in my book I describe good unit tests as ones that are readable, maintainable and trust-worthy at the same time). He just called them RTM:…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# RTM ready tests

By Roy Osherove December 31, 2009 In [.NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net), [Agile](https://osherove.com/blog/category/agile)

**Historical article** · Originally published December 31, 2009; technical details may be outdated.

a friend came up with a good way to describe good tests the way I see them [(in my book](http://artofunittesting.com/) I describe good unit tests as ones that are _readable, maintainable and trust-worthy_ at the same time).

He just called them RTM: Readable, Trust-worthy, Maintainable

I think I’ll keep this idea – as it flows well with the idea of an RTM application – can you actually “release” these tests to the market (that is – for someone else to read, maintain and trust)?

## Lessons on this topic

- [Readability Practices](https://courses.osherove.com/courses/tdd-in-net-in-hebrew/readability-practices/) · TDD in .NET in Hebrew

## More in .NET

[All posts in .NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net)

- Jan 6, 2010

    ### [TDD: 4 questions that will help you create the simplest thing that could possibly work](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/6/tdd-4-questions-that-will-help-you-create-the-simplest-thing.html)

- Jan 3, 2010

    ### [Oslo TDD Course – First day canceled](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/3/oslo-tdd-course-first-day-canceled.html)

- Dec 31, 2009

    ### [Brown, Green, Refactor](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/31/brown-green-refactor.html)

- Dec 30, 2009

    ### [Software Apprenticeship](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/30/software-apprenticeship.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/