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InfoQ Homepage News Article: Making TDD Stick: Problems and Solutions for Adopters

Article: Making TDD Stick: Problems and Solutions for Adopters

In this article, Mark Levison addresses the difficulties encountered by developers willing to adopt TDD, the reasons why many start using TDD but give up after a short period of time, and what could be done to help developers make TDD a habit.

Read: Making TDD Stick: Problems and Solutions for Adopters

By doing a survey among developers, Mark noticed that:

  • People find it hard to TDD on their own, when they don't have much experience with it.
  • TDD Education so far has focused too much on problems that are simpler than the real world.
  • More time is needed to experiment and try without the usual pressure of releasing software at a specific date.
  • Languages used in the real world, like Visual Basic and JavaScript, are never used as examples in unit test documentation or classroom exercises.
  • The average code base is full of legacy code and no training was provided in how to improve this code.
  • There is never enough time to learn – there is always (artificial) pressure to ship product soon, and so we can't take the time to improve.

After discussing the reasons behind his survey findings, Mark proposes several solutions:

  • Classroom Training
  • Online Training
  • Patience
  • Measure
  • Instill Pride
  • Management
  • Pair Programming
  • Community
  • Coding Dojo
  • Reading Workshops
  • Periodic visits from a Coach

In order to make TDD a habit, Mark’s conclusion is that the developers need patience, practice, support from their management, a multipronged approach and their colleagues’ help.

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