Sharpening the axe for test driven development

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln is famously (mis-) quoted: "If you showed me a big tree and an axe and gave me eight hours, I’d spend the first 6 hours sharpening the axe.” Software shops all over the world are now practicing XP, and specifically Test Driven Development. The tutorial below sets out to accomplish three goals: 1) Offer information on known axe-sharpening efforts in XPLand. 2) Provide a demonstration of a small set of hand-rolled tools for TDD in real-world projects. 3) Advocate the kind of deep laziness that gives making and refining tools its proper value in the framework of XP. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.