First, let's start off by explaining the concept we've all heard about – Test Driven Development.
The name says it all, it's a technique of writing tests as means of developing software.
It's an advanced technique of using automated unit tests to drive the design of software and force decoupling of dependencies. TDD combines test-first development where you write a test before you write just enough production code to fulfill that test and refactoring.
Proper implementation of TDD requires the testers and developers to precisely anticipate how the application and its features will be used in real life. Problems are approached in an incremental manner and tests intended for the same piece of code must often be done many times over. The methodical nature of TDD ensures that all the units in an application have been tested for optimum functionality, both individually and as a whole.
The goal of TDD is to give developers a way to think about requirements and design before writing any functional code.
Better sense of progress – As mentioned above, TDD gives developers a new way to think before writing any code. This indicates that better analysis of the code will be done, which in turn gives us better estimations.
By writing skeleton tests and architecture you can have a great feel of how much work is left to do, as well as how much you have done and helps you to have a much clearer view of where you are in the project.
Clearer picture of what needs to be done – While coding, you're more productive and TDD helps keep that productivity high by narrowing your focus. You'll write one failing test, and focus only on that to get it passing. It forces you to think about smaller chunks of functionality at a time rather than the application as a whole, and you can then incrementally build on a passing test, rather than trying to tackle the bigger picture from the get-go, which will probably result in more bugs, and therefore a longer development time.
Better maintenance – Since tests cover the whole project, any code that's not working will be noticed right away by failed tests, which save developers time, and makes maintenance of the project much simpler.
Refactoring is also simplified - by running the test cases again, the programmer can be sure that the refactoring/restructuring has not damaged the code in any way.
Tests as documentation – Tests can be viewed as documentation to a developer. A tool to use when he is not sure how a library or a class works. Developers can see the expected inputs, outputs, and scenarios created with tests which gives them a great overview of what is going on in the app.
With all these great benefits, TDD seems like a perfect solution for everyone, but there are some things that don't make TDD the best choice…
Advanced – Developing applications this way can be considered pretty advanced, because it's different that the classical approach, and requires much better understanding of programming language and architecture you're working on.
Slow on start – If you want to start TDD, you can expect slowing of the development process for the first 3-5 months. Also, it's worth mentioning that TDD is good for the long run, but not that great for rapid development.
Hard to implement – Sometimes, the project's workflow and features can make TDD impossible to implement and maintain. The project should be firstly judged to see if it fits the TDD's way of thinking.
Constant tweaking – Tweaking and changing something can cause a lot of tests to fail, and can be sometimes time consuming to change a lot of tests for a simple tuning of the app.
Globally, the number of mobile phone subscribers is approximately 4.5 billion and is expected to grow to 5 billion by 2020. The mobile device is now a richer platform for application delivery due to such an exponential growth and wide spread usage. The critical factor, as always, is the end user experience: application usability, reliability, and performance.
Test Driven Development, has emerged as a highly effective process for mobile app development teams who need to produce results and perform automated tests with increased efficiency.
TDD has its roots in Extreme Programming, a development method created in the late 1990s by famous American software engineer Kent Beck to better address evolving customer requirements, and to eliminate fear in application development.
Today, more and more mobile platforms recognize TDD as a great way of developing apps and they offer support and provide frameworks for simpler, easier and much more complete testing.
What makes TDD great for developing mobile apps are the tests themselves. One test written for Android can be written almost the same for IOS which in turn gives support for multiplatform application development.
Developing tests for both platforms at the same time, also makes developers think of a better architecture by combining their knowledge. One more thing, when that kind of code is being changed, or new features added, tests give synchronous results and can be expected to yield better results.
This is exactly why Test Driven Development is being acknowledged by many large firms and used as a standard way of development.
We are Creitive, digital product agency If you want to learn more, check out our Agile Mobile App Development Services
