Common Objections to TDD (and their refutations)

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareAgenda Motivation Education Inappropriate project Cultural Time pressures Unclear benefits 2 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareRefutations. Really?re·fute /rɪˈfyut Show Spelled /verb (used with object), re·fut·ed, re·fut·ing.1. to prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge.2. to prove (a person) to be in error. 3 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTDD – in one slide Test First predates XP and Agile TDD has been around for a while One of XP‟s core practices Widely referenced Still quite controversial I am not going to describe TDD in any detail Red/Green/Refactor (and variants) „T‟ for Test has unfortunate connotations First „D‟ definitely stands for Driven Second „D‟ may stand for Development or Design 4 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational software 5Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareSurvey Simple survey ran for 3 months Jan – Mar 2012 260 unique respondents 896 objections “What reasons are there not to practice TDD” “The question wreaks of elitism - it should instead be „what reasons are there to practice TDD‟”. Free text made for a wide range of responses Harder to analyse Split into 18 types, grouped into 5 categories 6 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareResults Education Time Benefits Project Cultural 7 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareBreakdown Education (223) Lack of Practice, Lack of Investment Project (194) Domain, Legacy, Environment, Tooling Cultural (179) Management, Team, Fanaticism, Demarcation, Egotism Time (174) Slowness of development, maintenance and execution Benefits (120) Lack of Proof & Experience, Alternatives 8 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareInterconnectedness of all things Classification is subjective Many responses could be categorised several ways Respondents had different points of view Their own objections Objections they had heard others express Further analysis required Follow-up survey(s) 9 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational software 10Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareSoftware Crisis! The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that dont master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus. - Dijkstra (ACM Turing Award Lecture 1972) 11 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareFanaticism and FluffThe steps of FDD are simple:1. Take a tiny piece of fluff from the plate and put it on your head, holding your head quite still to ensure that the fluff does not fall off your hair.2. Write a line of code.3. Say, “I am the Fluff Lord, within the Dominion Of The Fluffists.”4. Repeat.That’s it.Seriously, that’s all there is to it. 12 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareAgenda Motivation Education Inappropriate project Cultural Time pressures Unclear benefits Wrap up 13 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareHard to learn “TDD is hard.” Yes, it is Any technique is hard to master Fundamental changes are hard to adopt 10,000 hours of practice Did you stop trying to ride a bicycle when you fell off? 14 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareWhere to start “Sheer lack of knowledge on how to approach it appropriately. There are too many bowling examples and not enough practicality.” How do you usually learn something new? Unit Testing skills are foundational Coding Dojo to practice TDD http://cyber-dojo.com Better used as a group, but still useful solo 15 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTests before code “The compiler complains if I write tests before the code” First step to get to green is to make the test compile Only then can you move on to make the test pass 16 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTests will be buggy “Your test code is just your production code, written from the other end (i.e. just as complex and likely to have bugs)” No process is infallible “To err is human …” Safety in numbers Pair programming Peer review 17 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareUnfamiliar architectural style “How will we ever know what‟s going on if we cant see all of the code at once?” TDD tends to lead to small, concise implementations Low coupling High cohesion “Proliferation” of interfaces Literate-ish programming 18 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNo design improvement “My observations of code from TDD-based projects show no significant improvement in architecture, security, code style, testability, etc. over other projects built with testing in mind.” TDD ensures testability Tendency for smaller decoupled composition Other design concerns (e.g. security, performance etc.) not addressed by TDD 19 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareLearning several things at once “In a new technology, its too difficult to learn how to TDD as well as how to master that technology.“ Even if you are experienced with TDD, it changes your perspective on the new technology Idioms Tooling Kent Beck suggests reimplementing xUnit in the new language 20 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareDiscipline “TDD is a discipline and a work habit. Its very difficult to establish the habit.” Habits are hard to form, but also hard to break. Nothing works better than positive feedback There are many self-help guides available  Switch – Chip & Dan Heath Drive – Dan Pink 21 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareToo simple "This code is too simple to need a test“ Then the tests will be simple too What‟s simple to you may be opaque to others As the code evolves, tests can help keep it simple 23 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareJust a spike “Because youre prototyping an idea and its much faster to spike without tests. If you do end up using the code then you can write tests and refactor.” Use the right tool – TDD is not mandatory Discipline to ensure spike does not mutate “Write one to throw away” TDD the spike anyway! 24 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNot useful for all aspects of design “I dont think that deriving a design by writing tests is a useful practice. Tests by themselves cannot cover many aspects of a design (designing for concurrency and performance in particular by writing tests is something that Ive never seen anyone do).” TDD is not the only tool in the toolbox Probably wrong tool for performance testing Can be applied to concurrency testing (but not recommended) 25 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNot useful for functional/declarative programming “Because it is largely adequate in imperative programming and not when you go functional and declarative - when code reads like specification.” Orthogonal. Absence of side effects makes testing MORE effective. Discuss! 26 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareLegacy code “Difficulty starting with legacy code. A simple change done through TDD can take orders of magnitude longer due to a need to redesign toward testability. ” Working Effectively With Legacy Code – Feathers Small, conservative steps, eventually tame fear and doubt Consider less intrusive approaches initially e.g. TextTest – texttest.org 27 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareInsufficient tooling “There is no unit-test framework for the language Im using, and I dont have time/inclination to develop one myself.” There probably is. You might not need one “TDD in C” – Olve Maudal 28 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareGUI “I do a lot of UI code and dont really know how to properly do that with TDD.” “Subcutaneous” testing Presenter First pattern Based on MVC/MVP patterns Very shallow view, with no business logic Stateless presenter orchestrates interaction between view and model 29 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareExcessive coupling to data “A test expresses a unit of change as data that fits the needed computation. Creating that data is harder than writing the program that accomplishes the change.” Unit tests preferably utilise „small‟ amounts of data For domains where this is not possible You will need large amounts of data irrespective of test approach Bootstrap process with constructed data Continue with captured data 30 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareManagement antipathy “Management want results NOW; very much willing to clean up small oversights later. Close is good enough attitude.” Management are generally result focused Previous bad experiences affect appetite for change Both ways! Start small Need to demonstrate benefit to „bottom line‟ 32 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTeam resistance “Teammates are not prepared. They do not have enough knowledge or experience in unit testing.” “No one tells me how to program!” Changing behaviours is hard “Fearless Change” has many patterns for introducing change 33 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareI never make mistakes “I already know what the code needs to do and its low risk. I dont need a test for it.” “My first design idea is always perfectly good.” “My code always works the first time.” Do people really believe this? Even if they do, is everyone that ever touches the code going to be so talented? 34 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTesting is for testers “We dont need TDD, weve got a QA department. Theyll find the bugs for us.” TDD is not just about testing Drives design Refactoring/regression safety net  Write tests to explore EVERY defect you find Living documentation  Helps future developers understand intended behaviours 35 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareAll TDD-ers are fanatics “It has become a cult. Its advocates have made it antithetical to „Individuals and interactions over processes and tools‟. It is evangelized through coercion and browbeating -- necessarily, as it isnt compelling on its own.” “Someone needs to tell unclebob that he might be right, but hes part of the problem - to non-modern coders (which felt like the majority last time I looked) he comes across like a raving loony.” 36 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareFluff (continued)If at any time you even THINK about writing a line of codebefore putting fluff on your head, then you‟ve to delete all yourcode, shake all the fluff from your head onto the plate and startall over again.I have been practicing FDD for 12 years now; sometimes in theoffice, I have so much fluff on my head that my boss thinks I‟ma hay-stack, only made of fluff. A sort-of fluff-stack, if you will.But one thing is beyond doubt: the code I write, when I‟m in thisfluff-zone, is the most high-quality code that anyone has everseen. 37 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareMore code to write “Takes too much time to write test.” How will your code get tested? Test team? Customers & Stack Trace Driven Development? How much time will be spent figuring out how to make changes later? What proportion of your time do you actually spend coding? 39 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareMore code to maintain “If I change something it will break a whole bunch of tests that I will have to fix and it will be more work for me in the end than just verifying my changes manually.” It is USEFUL to know when behaviour changes Foundational Unit Testing skills reduce brittleness next 6 slides 40 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTestability Testability needs to be designed in TDD ensures code is testable Code with hidden dependencies is hard to test Dependency Injection/Inversion  Pass dependencies into code under test  Write factories that permit injection of test doubles Interfaces should be cohesive  Wide interfaces encourage unnecessary coupling Avoid globals, singletons etc. Retro-fitting unit tests is hard Take small steps Introduce a „seam‟ – c.f. Working Effectively with Legacy Code 41 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNecessity Test observable behaviour Don‟t modify encapsulation to aid testing If a behaviour isn‟t observable through the public interface what is it for? Don‟t slavishly write one test per method Test behaviours Some methods may not need any dedicated tests Methods that implement useful behaviours may need many tests Choose test variants carefully Edge conditions Invalid inputs Multiple invocations Error signalling 42 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareGranularity Test a SINGLE observable behaviour It is tempting to combine related behaviours in a single test – DON‟T  … even if EXACTLY the same steps are neededpublic void shouldSortTwoStringsAndReportCorrectSize() { SortedSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); animals.add(“Zebra”); animals.add(“Anteater”); assertEquals(2, animals.size()); assertEquals(“Anteater”, animals.first()); assertEquals(“Zebra”, animals.last());} 43 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareUnderstandability Name tests to describe the behaviour under test Describe nature of the test  Is it checking that preconditions are enforced?  Is a dependency going to signal an error? Long names are fine – you only type them once Be precise  shouldReturnCorrectValue is not a good name for a test  shouldReturnCorrectSumOfTwoIntegersWithoutOverflow  should_return_correct_sum_of_two_integers_without_overflow When a test fails you want to know WHAT WENT WRONG You don‟t want to reverse engineer the test You don‟t want to run smaller tests to isolate the failure 44 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareMaintainability Unit Tests should be written to same quality as Production code Tests will be maintained and read just as often as production code Code is communication to other developers not just a compiler Organise tests into cohesive suites Refactor tests to avoid duplication Use suites to perform common set up/tear down operations Extract common code into methods Extract common functionality into classes Remove redundant tests 45 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareReiteration: 5 -ities Testability Necessity Granularity Understandability Maintainability MUNGT ? TeNGUM? 46 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareMock-based tests rot “Unit-test mock/stub assumptions rots” Use collaboration and contract tests – J.B. Rainsberger Collaboration tests make assumptions about the contract; contract tests try to justify those assumptions A stub in a collaboration test must correspond to an expected result in a contract test An expectation in a collaboration test must correspond to an action in a contract test 47 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareThat library is third party “API layers above and below you dont provide adequate mocks. Testing against the „real thing‟ is hard/impossible.” “Dont mock types you dont own” – Joe Walnes Write adapters that provide a domain specific API Write acceptance tests that verify the library‟s behaviour Run whenever adopting a new version 48 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareSlow execution “Running the tests takes too long.” For TDD to work tests need to (build and) execute in seconds Some environments need careful configuration C/C++ Rails Are they really Unit Tests? (See next slide) 49 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareA test is not a unit test if: It talks to the database It communicates across the network It touches the file system It can‟t run at the same time as other unit tests You have to do special things to your environment (such as editing config files) to run it (Michael Feathers‟ blog, 2005) 50 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareAbsence of research “No scientific proof of it actually having any benefit (compared to just code reviews, pair programming or etc.) for the same amount of time” “Its not practical for the kind of work I do. By which I mean, it cannot be conclusively shown to provide tangible benefits that outweigh the perceived costs.” “In an industry where todays must have offering is tomorrows dustbin liner, its often prudent to wait before trying the latest snake oil!” 52 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareAbsence of research (cont.) “We found that test-first students on average wrote more tests and, in turn, students who wrote more tests tended to be more productive. We also observed that the minimum quality increased linearly with the number of programmer tests, independent of the development strategy employed.” On the Effectiveness of Test-first Approach to Programming Proceedings of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 2005 Lots of other papers are referenced from: http://bradapp.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/studies-on-effectiveness-of-tdd.html 53 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareOur process is good enough already “My team doesnt practice it. It is difficult to change existing practices if they seem to work reasonably well.” “Ive personally been a part of four large software projects where active pursuit of a test suite was in play. None of the four projects ever launched into production. The people I worked with were smart and highly ambitious, yet they (we) failed to launch. “Ive personally been a part of dozens of software projects where active pursuit of a test suite was NOT in play. Most every one of those projects launched into production in a timely manner.” 54 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareTest after “Its easier to write the code first and the test after.” “Writing tests after code is just as good.” “Writing tests before code doesnt make sense.” Testability Rework needed if code not testable Discipline Will you really write the tests later? 55 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareBDD “Why practice TDD when you can practice BDD?” BDD extends TDD Involves stakeholders, not just developers Even harder to implement. 56 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareATDD, BDD, GOOS Many shades of outside-in, test-first development 57 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNone of these are enough either Given the account is in credit And the card is valid And the dispenser contains cash When the customer requests cash Then check that the account is debited And check that cash is dispensed And check that the card is returned “And check that nothing happens that shouldn’t happen and everything else happens that should happen for all variations of this scenario and all possible states of the ATM and all possible states of the customer’s account and all possible states of the rest of the database and all possible states of the system as a whole, and anything happening in the cloud that should not matter but might matter.” 58 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareManual testing “It is much faster to just think about the proper implementation, write the code and manually test it.” Until you need to do it again … and again Manual scripts Error prone Time consuming Expensive 59 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareNot sufficient, but necessary? TDD is not enough. Consider: Acceptance Usability Performance / Stress Exploratory Systems have been, and continue to be, successfully delivered without TDD. But they have also been delivered without designs, documentation, or …. testing of any kind. 61 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareConclusions There are many impediments to adopting TDD Benefits are not universally accepted TDD is not a “Silver Bullet” 62 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareEssential Reading Test Driven Development by Example – Kent Beck Growing Object Oriented Software Guided By Tests – Steve Freeman/Nat Pryce Working With Legacy Code – Michael Feathers Fearless Change – Mary Lynn Manns/Linda Rising JUnit Recipes – J.B. Rainsberger 63 Innovation for a smarter planet

IBM Software Group | Rational softwareOther referencesFluff Driven Development:http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/blog/?p=594Presenter First:http://atomicobject.com/files/PresenterFirstAgile2006.pdfTDD in C:http://www.pvv.org/~oma/TDDinC_Smidig2007.pdfOn the effectiveness of Test-first approach to Programming:http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=5763742&article=0&lang=en&ext=pdf 64 Innovation for a smarter planet

http://claysnow.co.uk	501
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	2
http://www.linkedin.com	2

Common Objections to TDD (and their refutations)

by Seb Rose on May 01, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 505

Statistics

Common Objections to TDD (and their refutations) Presentation Transcript