Software development is becoming increasingly popular today. The development sector is booming. However, keeping track of the developed applications and ensuring their quality is a big hassle. Developers can follow several techniques to provide a high-quality product. This article focuses on why you should choose test-driven development (TDD) and automated testing for your development projects.
Benefits of Test-Driven Development
Updated program strategy and better code quality
TDD has a unique rule of DRY (don’t repeat yourself) that uses different functions to build a more robust program. This principle states that programmers should avoid repeating code to keep the software simple. Furthermore, in TDD, developers test all code for possible mistakes and errors. All of these steps build up to provide a beautifully structured software that gives better results.
Also read: What to Consider When Developing On-Demand Software Platforms.
Precise Program Documentation
Developers keep track of the user requirements and specifications. It should be in a detailed document that makes it easier to implement features. This discharges both the user and the developer of any extra work. They make the unit tests to fit the user stories to give the optimal result consistently. Thus, the software is tailored to the user requirements.
Efficiency for project progress
According to a recent study, software maintenance without test-driven development takes twice as much time as a program made with test-driven development. Several steps make TDD software so time-efficient. The first one being its fast feedback. With TDD, tests fall right into the place where they should be. That allows the programmers to analyze instantly when something is wrong. This saves time during the development of a project. And the developers can fix a problem right away when an issue is detected.
TDD programs suggest fewer errors as compared to other developers. Fewer problems mean less time spent fixing and maintaining those codes hence giving faster programming accomplishment.
Productive codes and easy maintenance
As per research by the IEEE, test-drive development usage decreases the rate of errors by 40 – 80 percent. Refactoring is a step that plays an important role in reducing time for the program as it optimizes an existing code to make it simpler and easy to use. This provides a simple code structure that is understandable to users who are non-developers. An organized interface reduces even more time, shows the whole structure, and matches the client’s needs.
Provides productive solutions
Test-driven development ensures reliable and developed solutions. After adding every new feature, developers carry out tests to confirm that everything goes according to plan. Without these tests, developers are not sure that recent features. Or refactoring of a function will work with the previous codes. Using TDD guarantees programmers that every step of the development is fully functional. Test drive development creates an organized workflow for the developers to follow.
Benefits of Automated Testing
Faster feedback and time and cost efficient
Test automation is a vital feature as it helps decrease the feedback cycle and brings faster authentication for every step of the development. It also helps greatly with detecting any errors that may occur in the development. This reduces time and increases the productivity of the developers.
By using automated tests, fewer capitals are spent on testing the product, and less manual work is required. Test automation is a great feature that saves money, time, and labor.
High test coverage
Through automation, developers can test every aspect of a product. And they solve issues that would have otherwise remained undetected. Features are properly tested, resulting in an efficient product. Further, automation allows developers to write detailed tests that cannot be done manually.
Test Suite Reusability
Once the test suite is made, it is fairly easy to use for other test projects. The understanding and knowledge gained by the test suite can be used again in another project. This reusability reduces the feedback and testing cycle, allowing developers to bring their products into the market faster.
Automated testing stores data tables, internal programs, file contents and memory contents of the product which helps analyze the problem if something goes wrong.
Less Stress on QA Team
Automated testing will allow your QA team to focus on other tasks than manual testing. Furthermore, manual testing can allow human error and is far more expensive than automated testing.
Conclusion
Both test-driven development and automated testing are great techniques for quality assurance. They are not only cost-effective but also provide greater accuracy and an overall better product. If you are a software developer or in a development team, integrating TDD and automated testing into your development cycle can certainly have some great advantages.