Clarify TDD doesn't mean write *all* tests first #1083
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This was already written well, and the separate article ./tdd.md is excellent. However, I think the language could be a little clearer to dispell the common misconception that TDD means you write all your tests first. I trust this is clear to TDD practitioners, but I commonly see "senior" engineers misunderstand this. Kent Beck sees this so commonly that he wrote a [little article](https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/canon-tdd) on the subject. My org was using this document for training engineers, and am hoping this small change will make it even more helpful.
joshua-koehler
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TessFerrandez,
shiranr and
nyouens
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nyouens
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Jan 22, 2025
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This was already written well, and the separate article
./tdd.mdis excellent. However, I think the language could be a little clearer to dispell the common misconception that TDD means you write all your tests first. I trust this is clear to TDD practitioners, but I commonly see "senior" engineers misunderstand this.Kent Beck sees this so commonly that he wrote a little article on the subject.
My org was using this document for training engineers, and am hoping this small change will make it even more helpful.
I also made a minor change to the first sentence. I understand it to be conveying one benefit of TDD, namely that it makes the code more testable, and thought it could be made more succinct. Furthermore, many tout TDD as a mechanism for design, so explicitly negating that benefit is perhaps likely to cause unintended controversy.