Unit Test Environment

A Unit Test Suite consists of code which verifies and validates the unit within the unit-testing environment. It consists of -
1) Test Script - Code which calls different functions of the unit under different conditions.
2) Test Harness - In order to achieve its functionality, the unit under test might need the help of other modules. Substitute all such external functions with dummy versions, stripped to the bare minimum.

The unit under test should be run under this unit-testing environment. For the unit of a complex, heterogeneous system, it is more practical and useful to have a unit-testing environment which is much simpler than the actual deployment environment.

Aside: It is tempting to make the unit-test environment "more real, just to see if it works too; anyway I am testing, so why not?". So if you do this, you will end up doing something that's neither unit- nor functional-testing, and you won't get the possible benefits of either!

More about test-scripts and test-harnesses later.