Test-first software development helps us build testable behaviors and support refactoring.
Summary of Seven Strategies Series
I finished my “Seven Strategies” series of 72 blog posts with seven strategies for implementing each of the nine practices from my book, Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software. These posts are filled with practical advice for implementing the nine core practices from Scrum, Extreme Programming, and …
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Read MoreMake Each Test Unique
I want to conclude this series of Seven Strategies for Great Acceptance Tests with the advice to make each test unique. I know this is easier said than done but it does get to the very core of what quality software development it’s all about. When our unit tests test units of behavior, then every …
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Read MoreSplit Behaviors on Acceptance Criteria
We think about what we build at different layers of abstraction. At the highest level, we have the minimum marketable feature set or MMF, which is composed of a list of features. A feature is some value that someone gets from using the system. This may involve the fulfillment of several things in the system, …
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Read MoreUse Examples
One of my favorite books on acceptance test-driven development is by Gojko Adzic called Specification by Example. This book talks about how you can specify the features of a system through examples cleanly and clearly so that they are straightforward to work through. Examples allow us to quickly flesh out details and drive out inconsistencies …
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Read MoreSpecify Edge Cases
Another huge benefit of Acceptance Test-Driven Development or ATDD is that it helps us flesh out edge cases, exceptions, and alternate paths for a story to follow. I far prefer to specify edge cases and exceptional paths through acceptance tests rather than with use cases because acceptance tests are more articulate and they are executable. …
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Read MoreAutomate Acceptance Criteria
You can do acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) manually without the aid of a tool by just keeping track of the acceptance criteria for a story and noting when it meets the criteria. Automating the process is helpful but the real value comes in articulating the acceptance criteria ahead of time. It is estimated that more …
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Read MoreKnow Who it’s for and Why They Want it
Another huge benefit of acceptance test-driven development or ATDD is that it helps us get clear on defining features for a specific type of user. And it also helps us get clear on why they want that future. Why is really the key question. Why do we want to implement or build a feature in …
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Read MoreGet Clear on the Benefits of What You are Building
I have heard it said from a number of sources that the largest source of defects and the ones that are the most expensive to fix are our misunderstandings of requirements. Requirements are essential. If we build the wrong stuff, something the customer doesn’t want or need, then it doesn’t matter how beautiful our code …
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Read MoreWhy Practice 6: Write the Test First
I wrote Beyond Legacy Code to talk about the value of technical practices in software development. One of the most valuable technical practices for me has been test-first development and I really wanted to discuss it in ways that I hadn’t seen it discussed before that I found to be productive. Having exposed thousands of …
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Read MoreMore on Test-Driven Development
One of the most valuable development practice that has become popular recently is test-driven development. When done correctly, unit tests can dramatically drop the cost of maintaining software while increasing its value. All the things that management wants and needs from the processes that are built around software development are embodied in this simple practice …
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