test-driven-development

The Red-Green-Refactor cycle enforces writing a failing test first, implementing minimal production code to pass it, and then safely refactoring. This disciplined TDD approach ensures high code quality and full test coverage for new features.

Writing failing tests before production code prevents technical debt by verifying every feature requirement upfront. This strict adherence to the TDD cycle ensures your implementation is fully documented by its test suite and free from over-engineering.

The best way to fix a bug using test-driven development is to write a failing test that reproduces the specific defect first. You then implement the minimal code fix to make the test pass, ensuring the bug is verified and prevented from regressing.

To avoid common unit testing anti-patterns, you should mock external dependencies rather than mocking real internal logic. Following strict TDD guidelines prevents over-engineering and ensures your tests verify actual behavior instead of implementation details.

You should not use test-driven development when exploring experimental spikes where code will be thrown away, as the strict Red-Green-Refactor cycle requires writing failing tests before production code. TDD is designed for feature implementations, bug fixes, and refactoring tasks.