"From here to Acceptance Test Driven Development"

My Article "From here to Acceptance Test Driven Development - 9 Landmarks to find your way" has been published in Better Software Magazine... make sure you pick up a copy.

Acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) means many things to many people—from “It’s all about testing” to “It has nothing to do with testing,” and from “TDD, ATDD—it’s all the same” to “TDD and ATDD are nothing alike.” Each of these statements describes ATTD from a single perspective, but neither encapsulates the entire meaning. This is often because different people notice different aspects of ATDD depending on where they are coming from.

It’s like asking a friend for directions to his favourite bar, but he can’t recall any of the road names so he gives you landmarks instead (“Turn left at the clock-tower”). But ask another friend for directions to the same place, and you’ll get a totally different set of landmarks. It would be no surprise if you got lost along the way.

To explain ATDD and its benefits, I’ve retraced my own steps and also the steps of others to give you the most common landmarks, no matter where you’re coming from.

Landmarks I talk about are...

• Landmark 1: Understanding the Origin of ATDD
• Landmark 2: Specification by Example
• Landmark 3: It’s Not About Testing
• Landmark 4: It Is Also About Testing
• Landmark 5: Executable Specifications & Automated Validation
• Landmark 6: It’s an Automated Test, Jim, But Not as We Know It
• Landmark 7: Sometimes It Matters What You Don’t Call It
• Landmark 8: Sometimes It Matters What You Do Call It
• Landmark 9: It’s More About the Dynamics Than the Artifacts

Make sure you pick up a copy