Have you ever written all your app code, and then gone back and thought, “As a responsible developer I should probably write some tests for this code” and then dreaded the next few hours or days of writing tests?

Or has writing the tests ever felt pointless? After all, you’ve already manually tested your code, and it seems to be working fine, so why bother writing tests now? Let’s just ship it.

When you use TDD, however, tests are just part of your development process. Because you are writing them at the same time that you’re writing your app code, the tests feel more meaningful, and you know that they are actually serving some purpose.

(Side note: Tests are more for the future than for the present. While they’re helpful in verifying your functionality is working now, they’re even more useful when the next developer three months from now has to modify some of your code. If tests are in place, he or she can refactor with confidence. It’s especially nice when that developer is you!)