test-driven-development

Test-driven development prevents regressions by enforcing the discipline of writing a failing test that specifies desired behavior before writing any production code. This ensures explicit behavioral validation occurs prior to implementation across features and refactors.

The red-green-refactor cycle is an iterative TDD workflow where you write a failing test defining expected behavior, implement minimal code to pass that test, and then refactor the code while keeping the test green to verify behavior.

To start writing tests before code for a new feature, begin by writing a failing test that specifies the desired behavior, watch it fail, implement just enough production code to pass, and refactor as needed.

Yes, you can apply TDD discipline when fixing bugs and refactoring. Start by defining a test that captures the expected fix or behavior, watch it fail, and implement minimal changes to verify the corrected behavior.

You should avoid a test-first development workflow when reliable validation is not required or the codebase lacks infrastructure to support iterative test execution. TDD focuses on explicit behavioral specification which may not suit exploratory prototyping.