Make does more work than I could ever wrap my head around, it can understand prpblems much larger than any human can, so I still write recipies for it.
StuFeldman invented its algorithm, and it is still a robust thing to do all the time. Maybe your UnitTests rely on running make in a certain directory or against a certain target (i.e. make tests)
The original MakeAlgorithm appears in a one page AwkScript in the AwkBook (Not at hand tonight, page numbers later ~~ 188 )