article

Realizing quality improvement through test driven development: results and experiences of four industrial teams

Authors:

Nachiappan Nagappan,

E. Michael Maximilien,

Thirumalesh Bhat,

Laurie WilliamsAuthors Info & Claims

Empirical Software Engineering, Volume 13, Issue 3

Pages 289 - 302

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9062-z

Published: 01 June 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development practice that has been used sporadically for decades. With this practice, a software engineer cycles minute-by-minute between writing failing unit tests and writing implementation code to pass those tests. Test-driven development has recently re-emerged as a critical enabling practice of agile software development methodologies. However, little empirical evidence supports or refutes the utility of this practice in an industrial context. Case studies were conducted with three development teams at Microsoft and one at IBM that have adopted TDD. The results of the case studies indicate that the pre-release defect density of the four products decreased between 40% and 90% relative to similar projects that did not use the TDD practice. Subjectively, the teams experienced a 15---35% increase in initial development time after adopting TDD.

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Cited By

Lemos OSilveira FFerrari FSilva TGuerra EGarcia A(2024)Unraveling the code: an in-depth empirical study on the impact of development practices in auxiliary functions implementationSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09682-432:3(1137-1174)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11219-024-09682-4
Papis BGrochowski KSubzda KSijko K(2022)Experimental Evaluation of Test-Driven Development With Interns Working on a Real Industrial ProjectIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2020.302752248:5(1644-1664)Online publication date: 1-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2020.3027522
Pecorelli FCatolino GFerrucci FDe Lucia APalomba F(2022)Software testing and Android applications: a large-scale empirical studyEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10059-527:2Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-021-10059-5
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Index Terms

Realizing quality improvement through test driven development: results and experiences of four industrial teams
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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Published In

cover image Empirical Software Engineering

Empirical Software Engineering Volume 13, Issue 3

June 2008

108 pages

ISSN:1382-3256

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Copyright © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2008

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Cited By

Lemos OSilveira FFerrari FSilva TGuerra EGarcia A(2024)Unraveling the code: an in-depth empirical study on the impact of development practices in auxiliary functions implementationSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09682-432:3(1137-1174)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11219-024-09682-4
Papis BGrochowski KSubzda KSijko K(2022)Experimental Evaluation of Test-Driven Development With Interns Working on a Real Industrial ProjectIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2020.302752248:5(1644-1664)Online publication date: 1-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2020.3027522
Pecorelli FCatolino GFerrucci FDe Lucia APalomba F(2022)Software testing and Android applications: a large-scale empirical studyEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10059-527:2Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-021-10059-5
Alami APaasivaara M(2021)How Do Agile Practitioners Interpret and Foster “Technical Excellence”?Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/3463274.3463322(10-19)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3463274.3463322
Pecorelli FPalomba FDe Lucia A(2021)The Relation of Test-Related Factors to Software Quality: A Case Study on Apache SystemsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-020-09891-y26:2Online publication date: 1-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-020-09891-y
Rocha FSouza LSilva TRodríguez GMachado ISouza RMaciel RSant'Anna C(2019)Agile Teaching PracticesProceedings of the XXXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3350768.3351799(279-288)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3350768.3351799
Pecorelli FDumas MPfahl DApel SRusso A(2019)Test-related factors and post-release defects: an empirical studyProceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3338906.3342500(1235-1237)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3338906.3342500
Akerele O(2018)System dynamics modelling of the impact of agile practice on the quality of continuous delivery projectsInnovations in Systems and Software Engineering10.1007/s11334-017-0296-z14:3(183-208)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11334-017-0296-z
Stefan PHorky VBulej LTuma PBinder WCortellessa VKoziolek ASmirni EPoess M(2017)Unit Testing Performance in Java ProjectsProceedings of the 8th ACM/SPEC on International Conference on Performance Engineering10.1145/3030207.3030226(401-412)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2017
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Tosun ADieste OFucci DVegas STurhan BErdogmus HSantos AOivo MToro KJarvinen JJuristo N(2017)An industry experiment on the effects of test-driven development on external quality and productivityEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-016-9490-022:6(2763-2805)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2017
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