The Limits of Test Driven Design in Software Development (TDD)

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Great example, shows the real promise and realities of Test Driven Design (TDD)

The Limites of Test Driven Design in Software Development (TDD): "

• Complaint: TDDed tests are prescriptive
• Response: This is a feature. Stating our assumptions up front exposes misunderstandings.

• Complaint: Choosing tests is hard
• Response: This is also a feature. It tells us that our design is bad or that we don't understand the problem.

• Complaint: The code you TDDed was bad!
• Response: TDD does not free us from thinking. TDD is not magic.

• Complaint: It's too much typing.
• Response: Typing is not the bottleneck.

Many complaints about TDD are complaints that it doesn't solve some problem. These are not problems with TDD – it's not supposed to solve every problem!

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Dynamic languages don't make coffee, continuous integration doesn't shine shoes, and TDD doesn't make code scale. It's simply the basis of a solid, disciplined process for building software – a beginning, not an end.

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