Lessons Learned in Acceptance Test-Driven Development

Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD), an application of the test-first practice of XP and agile development, can add enormous value to agile teams that are proficient in these practices. Moving from awareness of ATDD to being proficient at practicing ATDD comes about only after learning some important lessons. First, no one group can "own" the process. Second, ATDD is first about helping the customer and the team understand the problem; then it is about testing. Third, writing automated acceptance tests in ATDD is not the same as writing automated tests with typical automation tools. Antony Marcano shares his experiences with ATDD-the good, the bad, and the ugly-and the many other lessons he's learned in the process. Discover the benefits and pitfalls of ATDD and take advantage of Antony's experiences so that you avoid common mistakes that teams make on their journey to becoming proficient practitioners of ATDD.