title: Building a test suite in a large existing Java code base
body: <p>I am working on a web application with an existing code base that has probably been around for 10 years, there are ~1000 class files and ~100,000 lines of code. The good news is that the code is organized well, business logic is separate from the controller domain, and there is a high level of reusability. The bad news is there is only the very beginnings of a test suite (JUnit); there's maybe 12 dozen tests at most.</p>
  
  <p>The code is organized fairly typically for an enterprise Java project. There is a stuts-esque controller package, the model consists of almost purely data objects, there is a hibernate like database layer that is largely encapsulated within data access objects, and a handful of service packages that are simple, self contained, and logical. The end goal of building this test suite is to move towards a continuous integration development process.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>How would you go about building a test suite for such an application?</li>
  <li>What tools would you use to make the process simpler?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Any suggestions welcome. thanks!</p>