Test driven Development

lastmod 2026-03-30created 2014-09-1313 edits

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development process that relies on the repetition of a very short development cycle: first the developer writes a failing automated test case that defines a desired improvement or new function, then produces code to pass that test and finally refactors the new code to acceptable standards. Kent Beck, who is credited with having developed or 'rediscovered' the technique, stated in 2003 that TDD encourages simple designs and inspires confidence. Test-driven development is related to the test-first programming concepts of extreme programming, begun in 1999, but more recently has created more general interest in its own right. Programmers also apply the concept to improving and debugging legacy code developed with older techniques.

Concept of TDD

• A SW development technique that uses short iteration cycles based on tests written in advance.
• Requirements are defined by writing tests.
• TDD is not just a testing technique but a technique of SW design.

Libraries

• Catch2
• gtest

See also

• BDD
• Unit testing
• Regression Test
• Software Engineering
• Acceptance testing
• Keploy - Traffic-based automatic API test generator

Favorite site

• Wikipedia (en) description of test-driven development
• Wikipedia (en) List of unit testing frameworks ¹
• Unit testing with Mocks
• Differences between BDD and TDD
• [Recommended] Mocking is a Code Smell ² (Mocking, TDD)

References