5/06/2008

At least have a taste

We teach our children to at least have a taste before they judge anything as "yak".

We also teach engineers to try out practices before they judge anything as "yak".


"Just try it, if it does not work - ditch it".

TDD (test-driven development) is probably the most difficult technical skill associated with so called agile development especially in constrained embedded environment. It is also probably the most rewarding when in use.

The problem with TDD is that it has a learning curve. To make things worse the earlier debug-later development model has an unlearning curve. Most of the true benefits can concretely be seen after a fairly long period of time. It is not enough just to have a taste before judging, you actually need a prolonged tryout period. You most likely need some external help in the beginning. Your short term productivity suffers because of learning new skills and solving new kinds of problems.

You need someone in customer's role who is willing to talk about long term productivity as well.

Never the less I recommend to just have a taste.

No comments: