What is Test Driven Development (TDD)? Tutorial with Example

Test-Driven Development starts with designing and developing tests for every small functionality of an application. TDD framework instructs developers to write new code only if an automated test has failed. This avoids duplication of code. The TDD full form is Test-driven development.

The simple concept of TDD is to write and correct the failed tests before writing new code (before development). This helps to avoid duplication of code as we write a small amount of code at a time in order to pass tests. (Tests are nothing but requirement conditions that we need to test to fulfill them).

Test-Driven development is a process of developing and running automated test before actual development of the application. Hence, TDD sometimes also called as Test First Development.

In this tutorial, you will learn more about-

• How to perform TDD Test
• TDD Vs. Traditional Testing
• What is acceptance TDD and Developer TDD
• Scaling TDD via Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD)
• Test Driven Development (TDD) Vs. Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD)
• Example of TDD
• Benefits of TDD

How to perform TDD Test

Following steps define how to perform TDD test,

1. Add a test.
2. Run all tests and see if any new test fails.
3. Write some code.
4. Run tests and Refactor code.
5. Repeat.

Five Steps of Test-Driven Development

TDD cycle defines

1. Write a test
2. Make it run.
3. Change the code to make it right i.e. Refactor.
4. Repeat process.

Some clarifications about TDD:

• TDD approach is neither about "Testing" nor about "Design".
• TDD does not mean "write some of the tests, then build a system that passes the tests.
• TDD does not mean "do lots of Testing."

What is acceptance TDD and Developer TDD

There are two levels of TDD

1. Acceptance TDD (ATDD): With ATDD you write a single acceptance test. This test fulfills the requirement of the specification or satisfies the behavior of the system. After that write just enough production/functionality code to fulfill that acceptance test. Acceptance test focuses on the overall behavior of the system. ATDD also was known as Behavioral Driven Development (BDD).
2. Developer TDD: With Developer TDD you write single developer test i.e. unit test and then just enough production code to fulfill that test. The unit test focuses on every small functionality of the system. Developer TDD is simply called as TDD.

   The main goal of ATDD and TDD is to specify detailed, executable requirements for your solution on a just in time (JIT) basis. JIT means taking only those requirements in consideration that are needed in the system. So increase efficiency.

Scaling TDD via Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD)

TDD is very good at detailed specification and validation. It fails at thinking through bigger issues such as overall design, use of the system, or UI. AMDD addresses the Agile scaling issues that TDD does not.

Thus AMDD used for bigger issues.

The lifecycle of AMDD

In Model-driven Development (MDD), extensive models are created before the source code is written. Which in turn have an agile approach?

In above figure, each box represents a development activity.

Envisioning is one of the TDD process of predicting/imagining tests which will be performed during the first week of the project. The main goal of envisioning is to identify the scope of the system and architecture of the system. High-level requirements and architecture modeling is done for successful envisioning.

It is the process where not a detailed specification of software/system is done but exploring the requirements of software/system which defines the overall strategy of the project.

Iteration 0: Envisioning

There are two main sub-activates.

1. Initial requirements envisioning.

   It may take several days to identify high-level requirements and scope of the system. The main focus is to explore usage model, Initial domain model, and user interface model (UI).

2. Initial Architectural envisioning.

   It also takes several days to identify architecture of the system. It allows setting technical directions for the project. The main focus is to explore technology diagrams, User Interface (UI) flow, domain models, and Change cases.

Iteration modeling

Here team must plan the work that will be done for each iteration.

• Agile process is used for each iteration, i.e. during each iteration, new work item will be added with priority.
• First higher prioritized work will be taken into consideration. Work items added may be reprioritized or removed from items stack any time.
• The team discusses how they are going to implement each requirement. Modeling is used for this purpose.
• Modeling analysis and design is done for each requirement which is going to implement for that iteration.

Model storming

This is also known as Just in time Modeling.

• Here modeling session involves a team of 2/3 members who discuss issues on paper or whiteboard.
• One team member will ask another to model with them. This modeling session will take approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Where team members gather together to share whiteboard/paper.
• They explore issues until they don't find the main cause of the problem. Just in time, if one team member identifies the issue which he/she wants to resolve then he/she will take quick help of other team members.
• Other group members then explore the issue and then everyone continues on as before. It is also called as stand-up modeling or customer QA sessions.

Test Driven Development (TDD)

• It promotes confirmatory testing of your application code and detailed specification.
• Both acceptance test (detailed requirements) and developer tests (unit test) are inputs for TDD.
• TDD makes the code simpler and clear. It allows the developer to maintain less documentation.

Reviews

• This is optional. It includes code inspections and model reviews.
• This can be done for each iteration or for the whole project.
• This is a good option to give feedback for the project.

Test Driven Development (TDD) Vs. Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD)

Now, let's learn Test Driven Development by example.

Example of TDD

Here in this Test Driven Development example, we will define a class password. For this class, we will try to satisfy following conditions.

A condition for Password acceptance:

• The password should be between 5 to 10 characters.

First in this TDD example, we write the code that fulfills all the above requirements.

Scenario 1: To run the test, we create class PasswordValidator ();

We will run above class TestPassword ();

Output is PASSED as shown below;

Output:

Scenario 2: Here we can see in method TestPasswordLength () there is no need of creating an instance of class PasswordValidator. Instance means creating an object of class to refer the members (variables/methods) of that class.

We will remove class PasswordValidator pv = new PasswordValidator () from the code. We can call the isValid () method directly by PasswordValidator. IsValid ("Abc123"). (See image below)

So we Refactor (change code) as below:

Scenario 3: After refactoring the output shows failed status (see image below) this is because we have removed the instance. So there is no reference to non –static method isValid ().

So we need to change this method by adding "static" word before Boolean as public static boolean isValid (String password). Refactoring Class PasswordValidator () to remove above error to pass the test.

Output:

After making changes to class PassValidator () if we run the test then the output will be PASSED as shown below.

Summary:

• TDD stands for Test-driven development.
• TDD meaning: It is a process of modifying the code in order to pass a test designed previously.
• It more emphasis on production code rather than test case design.
• Test-driven development is a process of modifying the code in order to pass a test designed previously.
• In Software Engineering, It is sometimes known as "Test First Development."
• TDD testing includes refactoring a code i.e. changing/adding some amount of code to the existing code without affecting the behavior of the code.
• TDD programming when used, the code becomes clearer and simple to understand.

This article is contributed by Kanchan Kulkarni