Skuunk Works

Test Driven Development (TDD) is a great thing. It allows us to write code "safe" in the knowledge that if we accidentally break something in another part of the system, we will be alerted to it and can re-write or fix accordingly. It's such a good thing that often in large teams people will insist on this idea of 100% code coverage (i.e. every piece of working code has a corresponding test). Also, some people are compelled to test every single permutation and variation of how someone will access their program/website. TDD does have some costs however. Some are evident, but others not so. Cost 1 - Tests take time to run True, automated testing is faster than manual testing, but they do take time to run. This time means every time you make a change to the code, you need to wait for the suite to finish running in order to feel that your code is "safe" for deployment. Most of this time is a necessary evil. A lot of it is unnecessary... Should you write