Tuesday 18 February 2014

Spike and Stabilize, by Liz Keogh

"By doing TDD – writing our tests first, or before we’ve got feedback on what it is we’d like to achieve – we are creating a premature commitment. The principles of Real Options say, “Never commit early unless you know why”. If you’re working with uncertainty, and if you can avoid adding investment before getting feedback – for anypractice – then you will actually go quicker and be able to respond to discovery faster. You will be more agile."

This is how Liz Keogh sums her approach on software development beyond TDD.
In her article, Liz defends that we don't always have to do TDD before-hand, 'cause sometimes we just aren't sure of where we're heading to. Therefore, she suggests developers to Spike and Stabilize first, that is, "trying one or several things quickly to get feedback, then stabilizing the end result after we’ve managed to eliminate some of the uncertainty around what we’re doing."

Now, note that she does not defend this approach instead of TDD. On the contrary she suggests you should master TDD before you make this move in the way you work.

It's really worth to take a look!

Here you are: http://lizkeogh.com/2012/06/24/beyond-test-driven-development/

Have fun! :)

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