Timeline for Difference Between Unit Testing and Test Driven Development
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 12, 2021 at 4:01 | comment | added | Stanislav Bashkyrtsev | While I like the answer, the names "functional" and "acceptance" testing seem to be used incorrectly. I wrote a post some time ago about the naming of test levels vs test types: qala.io/blog/holes-in-test-terminology.html. You probably meant unit, component (aka integration) and system tests. | |
| Mar 25, 2017 at 20:39 | comment | added | NickL | @JörgWMittag You might be right in a purist way of looking at it, but you also know that TDD is not black and white. Any sane use of TDD would not let the tests drive the development completely, and tests definitely do not always decide what the design looks like (maybe unit tests can partly do this, but not tests at a higher abstraction level). What about refactoring? Which is a very important aspect of TDD. Also in the real world there is no such thing as 'ignore everything the test is telling you'. By definition, if you write tests first, you use 'some form of TDD'. | |
| Feb 12, 2017 at 9:56 | comment | added | Jörg W Mittag | @AndrewWillems: TDD means that the tests drive the development. You don't decide what the design looks like, the tests tell you. You don't decide what to work on next, the tests tell you. You don't decide when you're finished, the tests tell you. It is perfectly possible to write tests first, and then ignore everything they are telling you. For example, you could write tests first, but then keep on writing code even after all tests are green. So, in other words: you write tests first, but you treat them just as tests, and don't let them drive the development. | |
| Feb 12, 2017 at 2:28 | comment | added | Andrew Willems | I'm trying to wrap my head around how you can have "...projects that write tests first but don't practice TDD." Could you elaborate? | |
| Dec 1, 2015 at 9:02 | comment | added | AProgrammer | @JacquesB, why? Our tests are not what you'd call unit tests by any definition, they depend too much on infrastructure and other components, but we still have enough observability that we -- well at least some of us -- are doing TDD. | |
| Dec 1, 2015 at 7:39 | comment | added | JacquesB | They are not orthogonal though. You can't have TDD without unit tests. | |
| Feb 5, 2015 at 10:20 | comment | added | Martin | Great Answer. would add...TDD is when you let tests to push you and features to pull your development efforts... | |
| Apr 20, 2011 at 6:18 | vote | accept | Shamim Hafiz - MSFT | ||
| Mar 19, 2011 at 15:30 | history | answered | Jörg W Mittag | CC BY-SA 2.5 |