What is Test Driven Development? | Approach & Advantages

Introduction:

The design of a software system is plagued with issues and problems. A developer starts with a problem in mind and writes code to solve it. What happens is, the program written gets tested, but not enough testing is done on clients or the systems that are used by those clients. So, said client crashes on them. What should be tested? Let us find it below.

What is Test Driven Development?

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software engineering technique that tests the functionality of a program before writing the actual code. It's easy to see why TDD is so popular: it helps you write better code faster, with fewer bugs and errors. And because it's based on test-driven design, your tests will be more reliable than if you were just writing them as you went along—you'll know exactly what needs to be done before writing any code at all.

What Does Code Coverage Mean?

The question of what is test driven development is related to code coverage, which is a measure of how much of the code you have written has been covered by tests. A 100% code coverage means that all the lines of your program are covered by tests, which means it's highly unlikely that any bugs will slip through.

Code coverage helps you make sure that each line in your program gets tested—not just those lines from testing frameworks like JUnit or NUnit because they're more powerful than unit tests and can run on their own (which will be discussed below). Even if this article doesn't cover them directly yet (which it won't), you should consider using one or both of these tools anyway as part of the TDD process because they'll help keep your bug count down while still allowing you to write some really neat stuff.

Three Fundamental Phases of TDD

• Creating Precise Tests: The first step is to create precise steps of unit tests which should verify the functionality of each feature under observation. It should also be checked that the test is in working condition to be executed. 
• Correcting the Test Code: if the test fails, then it will demand minimal changes to make it run successfully. 
• Refactor the Code: When no bugs are reported, then redundancy is checked with possible optimizations which will lead to better performance. 

As I mentioned above, TDD does not test client (or user) interfacing with the system. Nor does it test how users interact with the system in general: 'What happens when I press this button?' So, although TDD can be used to write high-quality code that will simply work for anyone who uses it, we must take into consideration our users and find ways to make sure all systems are working as we intend them to, along with any bugs that may exist there as well.

In addition to writing clean code for any client and potential user interaction, for most applications testing is performed so that if something doesn't work right away in terms of functionality or performance testing can be run quickly thereafter by another programmer or a QA engineer (Quality Assurance).

Benefits of TDD:

• TDD is a way of writing software that is more reliable, maintainable, and testable. It is not just based on the idea that tests should drive code. It's not just about writing tests first, but also about making sure your code is working correctly before you write any new lines of code. This helps prevent bugs from creeping into production or even other parts of the application when they're still in the development stages.
• TDD helps you to see the problem before you write the solution. You don't have to wait until after writing code and then find out that it's broken, because everything is tested as well.
• When TDD is used correctly, refactoring becomes trivial because we can test all our changes before, they're made. This means there is no fear of breaking tests, code or even builds anymore (because they're all covered by test specs). We also don't have any reason to fear breaking user expectations since we've already gone through our entire design in detail before writing any new functionality.
• While TDD can be used to create larger codebases, it is also useful for creating smaller and safer codebases. The advantage of writing tests before you write your software is that it allows you to make sure all parts of your application work together correctly. If one part of the app doesn't work properly, then other parts might not either. You can easily see this when testing things like login flows or user interfaces—if there's an issue with one part, chances are there will be issues everywhere else as well! This leads us to our next benefit.
• When we talk about safety in software development, we mean two things: firstly, making sure that no bugs slip into production (e.g., having 100% perfect test coverage) and secondly ensuring no new bugs get introduced into production over time due to poor design decisions made during development time itself (e.g., changing requirements midstream). Tests help prevent these problems from occurring by providing accurate feedback which forces developers through thought processes before committing code changes into production environments where they could cause serious damage if left unchecked forever.

Why Is the Business Case for TDD Important?

TDD is a great way to get feedback on your code, but it's also a good way to get feedback on other things.

• Feedback from clients: If you're working with clients who are used to working with traditional waterfall development methods and they want something different, then that allows you to show them how TDD helps them write better software faster.
• Feedback from team members: If someone has ideas about how your project could be improved by using TDD, then this will help guide those changes in the future without needing additional resources or time spent on planning and design work (which could be costly).

Is TDD The Best Way to Write Software?

The short answer is yes, TDD is the best way to write software. It's probably the only way that works well for a lot of people—and that's because it forces you to think about your code in terms of tests before you start writing any code at all. That said: not every project will benefit from using TDD as its only development approach; some projects can be written more effectively without it and others may be better suited for other techniques such as test-driven design (TDD). We recommend using the TTD techniques used by WeTest in their Mobile App Live Testing techniques in which clients get Instant access to a wide range of iOS and Android Real Devices on WeTest Cloud along with real-time debugging, ADB debugging, Test Dev and Published apps support and much more.

If you've been using TDD, you know that code coverage is a great way to see how much of your code has been covered. The tool will tell you how many lines, methods, and classes are tested (and untested) by the tests in your test suite. You can also use this information to see how much of your code has been tested: For example, if there are two tests that each test one method twice and three methods twice each, then those four methods would be covered by both tests twice - meaning they have 100% coverage!

Wrapping Up:

Before we wrap up our topic of "what is test driven development", it can be summarized that TDD is a great way to write code, but it's also a great way to test your code. That's because TDD forces you to think through all the possible paths that can result in an error. You need to be able to think of all the different ways your code could fail before you can write any working code at all.