I don’t think I adequately explained what I am talking about in my last post. Here are some simple examples.

• The task: I need to pay my worker’s comp insurance.
• A test: Is the date of my next payment to my insurance company > the current date?
• The push: I accomplished my task and added a new test to my list of things to ensure are correct.

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• The task: I have to pay my mortgage.
• A test: Is the price of my mortgage still equal to X where X is the previous payment?
• The push: I have paid my mortgage and added a test to ensure payments are not consistent. (This happened to me once due to a drop in the amount and I didn’t realize I had been over paying, but not towards principal.)

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• The task: I need to sign up for a new mobile phone and was quoted $X/month for a year.
• The test: Create a test that ensures I am not billed at more than $X.
• The push: Submit new test to my testing suite. Perhaps also a test that the cost does go up to the new amount as defined by the salesperson.

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Think “if this then that” for the businesses I use on a recurring basis. If the banks and mobile phone companies and gas companies and insurance companies aren’t going to make APIs for us, why not make them ourselves? Hold them accountable and provide stats to ourselves about the money coming in and out of our lives.