How to test mods?

[SLTheThird]

I'm currently attempting to mod Skyrim with all sorts of crazy stuff off of the Nexus. The things I have learned about how to do so are as follows:

Use LOOT to determine optimum load order.
Use NMM to move around mods in case LOOT messes up.
Download any number of mods at once, but only activate one at a time for the sake of testing.
Read every mod's full description in full, just to be safe.

Fair enough. I'm about to start the reading of every mod's full description, which will take me a good while. In the meantime, however, I'm curious about testing. I've been told that testing basically consists of running across the map for a bit and seeing if your game is crashing a ton, and if it is, rework load order or deactivate one of the problematic mods. However, a good few of the mods which I am curious about state that you have to start a new game to use them. This seems like a problem from a testing standpoint; add mod, start new game, test it for a few, repeat until done.

1: Is this truly necessary?
2: Is there a faster way to do this?

[Mattiewagg]

Just COC from the main menu. i.e. start up the game, and type COC WhiterunBanneredMare in the console and it'll automatically start a new game for you without all the usual stuff.

[IsharaMeradin]

The purpose of the "run around and see if it 'blows up'" test is to determine not whether specific mods work but rather is the game as a whole still stable. This kind of test is most useful with game wide texture/mesh replacers as well as repetitive or constant running scripts. However every mod adds to the amount of processing required by the game so you may find that you'll need to decide between some eye candy or new content.