Delivering better products to our clients with test driven development
One of these skills is TestDriven Development (TDD), a process that requires a deep understanding of both the overall structure of an application and the software used.
TDD relies on developers understanding the scope of the feature they are developing and how that feature impacts the application as a whole. Development cycles should be very short with continuous integration testing taking place on the full application to spot bugs as part of the development process.
There are three key types of testing we apply during development:
Initially, a developer will write a failing test for the feature they are adding, they then develop the solution that fixes that test. No other pre-existing tests should be caused to fail as part of the development process.
The code then needs to be refactored to the point where it is modular and easy to understand. This process is very important as it allows the developer to create quality, easy to understand solutions, delivered with confidence that no bugs have been added.
The language used in writing a test should be clear and descriptive about what the test is for. This then allows the test to be used as an efficient bug documentation tool. Developers can then more effectively address the bug and make the required changes to fix the problem.
The TDD process is one that fits in with the Agile working methods our development team use. We also find it brings a number of benefits to the development team and the applications they are creating, including:
With JavaScript applications we useKarma (to run the tests) and Jasmine (to script the tests). The Karma test platform runs as a continuous integration server, detecting changes to the codebase and rerunning the existing series of tests against it, so any breaking changes are flagged as part of the development process.
The Jasmine scripting language is an open-source test framework that allows us to write feature based tests quickly and easily.
A good test should include the following things:
What are you testing and what should it do? A good description of the feature.
What is the expected result? The planned outcome, the value we actually test against. Our expected result should have no animosity.
All this TDD is great for our development team, but our customers also benefit from the process as we believe it allows us to deliver confidently, efficiently and in an agile manner, with very few bugs being introduced as part of the development process.This also limits redevelopment requirements later down the line and the resulting delays to project timelines.
One of these skills is TestDriven Development (TDD), a process that requires a deep understanding of both the overall structure of an application and the software used.
TDD relies on developers understanding the scope of the feature they are developing and how that feature impacts the application as a whole. Development cycles should be very short with continuous integration testing taking place on the full application to spot bugs as part of the development process.
There are three key types of testing we apply during development:
Initially, a developer will write a failing test for the feature they are adding, they then develop the solution that fixes that test. No other pre-existing tests should be caused to fail as part of the development process.
The code then needs to be refactored to the point where it is modular and easy to understand. This process is very important as it allows the developer to create quality, easy to understand solutions, delivered with confidence that no bugs have been added.
The language used in writing a test should be clear and descriptive about what the test is for. This then allows the test to be used as an efficient bug documentation tool. Developers can then more effectively address the bug and make the required changes to fix the problem.
The TDD process is one that fits in with the Agile working methods our development team use. We also find it brings a number of benefits to the development team and the applications they are creating, including:
With JavaScript applications we useKarma (to run the tests) and Jasmine (to script the tests). The Karma test platform runs as a continuous integration server, detecting changes to the codebase and rerunning the existing series of tests against it, so any breaking changes are flagged as part of the development process.
The Jasmine scripting language is an open-source test framework that allows us to write feature based tests quickly and easily.
A good test should include the following things:
What are you testing and what should it do? A good description of the feature.
What is the expected result? The planned outcome, the value we actually test against. Our expected result should have no animosity.
All this TDD is great for our development team, but our customers also benefit from the process as we believe it allows us to deliver confidently, efficiently and in an agile manner, with very few bugs being introduced as part of the development process.This also limits redevelopment requirements later down the line and the resulting delays to project timelines.
