Beyond Legacy Code

Introduce TDD to a Team

I’ve been asked if TDD is something that individual software developers—or really teams of developers—can introduce into companies essentially on their own, without making some kind of formal switch-over or involving management in what is ultimately a technical paradigm shift.

As it turns out, that’s how TDD has been taking root in at least some of the companies that practice it. In some cases management says, “Look guys, do whatever you feel is going to help you build quality software and make your deadlines.” Other organizations say, “What? You want to take twice as much time—write twice as much code now? You’re crazy!”

So it very much depends on management’s preconceptions of what TDD is and isn’t. And we’re dealing ...