Getting to Grips with Test-Driven Development

Programs and software have never been more complex than they are today. From my experience, the typical tech startup setup involves deployment to the cloud, distributed databases, and a variety of software integrations from the very beginning of the project. As we use software and consume data at unprecedented rates, the expectation of high availability and scalability has become standard for all the services we interact with.

So, why should we care about testing when we are so busy delivering complex functionality in fast-paced, high-growth environments? Simply put, to verify and prove that the code you write behaves and performs to the expectations and requirements of your project. This is important to you as the software professional, as well as to your team and product manager.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the Agile technique of Test-Driven Development (TDD) and how we can use it to verify production code. TDD puts test writing before implementation, ensuring that test scripts cover and change with requirements. Its techniques allow us to deliver quality, well-tested, and maintainable code. The task of software testing is a necessity for all programmers, and TDD seamlessly incorporates test writing into the code delivery process.

This chapter begins our exploration into the world of testing. It will give you the required understanding of TDD and its main techniques. Defining and setting these fundamentals firmly in our minds will set the stage for the later implementation of automated testing in Go.

In this chapter, we’ll cover the following main topics:

• The world and fundamentals of TDD
• The benefits and use of TDD
• Alternatives to TDD
• Test metrics