Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests

Chapter 20. Listening to the Tests

You can see a lot just by observing.

—Yogi Berra

Introduction

Sometimes we find it difficult to write a test for some functionality we want to add to our code. In our experience, this usually means that our design can be improved—perhaps the class is too tightly coupled to its environment or does not have clear responsibilities. When this happens, we first check whether it’s an opportunity to improve our code, before working around the design by making the test more complicated or using more sophisticated tools. We’ve found that the qualities that make an object easy to test also make our code responsive to change.

The trick is to let our tests drive our design (that’s why it’s called test-driven development). ...