I share a similar sentiment about unit tests. When you have a lot of code with fast changing requirements, unit testing can be a HUGE waste of time. In my previous job, we spent much more time writing and fixing unit tests than actually adding new features. I was operating at like 1/10th productivity.
It might make sense if you're working for a huge corporation with a LOT at stake. Unit tests then become a form of risk management - It forces employees to think REALLY LONG AND HARD about each tiny change that they make. It's good if the company doesn't trust their employees basically.
I MUCH prefer integration tests. I find that when you test a whole API/service end-to-end (covering all major use cases), you are more likely to uncover issues that you didn't think about, also, they're much easier to maintain because you don't have to update integration tests every time you rename a method of a class or refactor private parts of your code.
About the argument regarding using unit tests as a form of documentation engine; that makes sense but in this case you should keep your unit tests really lightweight - Only one test per method (no need to test unusual argument permutations) - At that point, I wouldn't even regard them as 'tests' anymore, but more like 'code-validated-documentation'; because their purpose then is not to uncover new issues, but rather to let you know when the documentation has become out of date.
I think if you're a small startup and you have smart people on your team (and they all understand the framework/language really well and they follow the same coding conventions), then you shouldn't even need unit tests or documentation - Devs should be able to read the code and figure it out. Maybe if a particular feature is high-risk, then you can add unit tests for that one, but you shouldn't need 100% unit test coverage for every single class in your app.
It might make sense if you're working for a huge corporation with a LOT at stake. Unit tests then become a form of risk management - It forces employees to think REALLY LONG AND HARD about each tiny change that they make. It's good if the company doesn't trust their employees basically.
I MUCH prefer integration tests. I find that when you test a whole API/service end-to-end (covering all major use cases), you are more likely to uncover issues that you didn't think about, also, they're much easier to maintain because you don't have to update integration tests every time you rename a method of a class or refactor private parts of your code.
About the argument regarding using unit tests as a form of documentation engine; that makes sense but in this case you should keep your unit tests really lightweight - Only one test per method (no need to test unusual argument permutations) - At that point, I wouldn't even regard them as 'tests' anymore, but more like 'code-validated-documentation'; because their purpose then is not to uncover new issues, but rather to let you know when the documentation has become out of date.
I think if you're a small startup and you have smart people on your team (and they all understand the framework/language really well and they follow the same coding conventions), then you shouldn't even need unit tests or documentation - Devs should be able to read the code and figure it out. Maybe if a particular feature is high-risk, then you can add unit tests for that one, but you shouldn't need 100% unit test coverage for every single class in your app.