Stelligent Survey Reveals Majority of Organizations Do Not Practice Test-Driven Development.
RESTON, Va. -- Stelligent Inc., an expert consulting firm advising leading companies on optimizing software production, today announced the results of a survey conducted at their "Share your test-driven development stories" roundtable last month. Approximately 25 CTOs, IT and project managers were in attendance to discuss the benefits and goals of testing and why it is beneficial to practice test-driven development (TDD). The purpose of the survey was to examine the adoption rate of TDD, why it's being practiced, and how often.
The results show that 84 percent surveyed do not currently practice TDD and 79 percent said they do not measure code coverage for development projects. Developers at the roundtable said they believe in implementing TDD; however their organizations are not ready to adopt the method due to the risk of process change. Results from a complementary survey distributed in September revealed 71 percent felt CIOs would adopt agile methods if they had a greater understanding of the business benefits.
Additional results from the survey include:
* 85% find unit tests are more effective at finding errors versus traditional testing.
* 29% said they only practice TDD when they remember to.
* 53% defined TDD as writing a test before writing any code
* 47% defined it as writing tests for anything that could break.
Despite the lack of adoption, survey respondents cited several reasons for practicing TDD. These include reduction in development time, maintainability, fewer defects, faster feedback and a more extensible system design.
"There is a trend of sticking to the tried and tested methods however, there is a clear benefit to practicing test-driven development," said Andy Glover, President of Stelligent. "Practicing TDD allows developers to discover defects and fix them during the build process resulting in greater confidence that the system will meet the current requirements defined for it."
To view the complete survey results, please visit: http://www.stelligent.com/pdf/TDDSurvey.pdf
If you're interested in participating in a future agile roundtable, please contact Stelligent.
About Stelligent
Stelligent Incorporated is a consulting firm and thought leader in helping development teams optimize Agile software production. As experts in the assembly of software, the company helps clients transform their development tactics and accelerate the delivery of reliable software solutions. For more information please visit www.stelligent.com.
