Essential Test-Driven Development

Actionable Techniques and Insights to Help You Deliver High-Quality, Maintainable Solutions Using a Test-Driven Approach

In today's fast-paced software development environment, delivering high-quality software quickly is crucial. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an essential practice for building robust and maintainable solutions. Essential Test-Driven Development guides you through writing tests before code, ensuring that every feature is clearly specified, thoroughly validated, and ready to meet evolving business needs. This book shows how TDD can transform your development process by reducing costly bugs and empowering your team to deliver value with confidence.

The actionable techniques and targeted examples in this book make TDD accessible to developers, managers, and product owners alike. Learn how to create a safety net of automated tests that protects your investment, accelerates delivery, and enables fearless innovation--even when working with legacy systems or new technologies. By adopting a test-driven mindset, you gain the skills to build software that's not only correct today but is resilient to change tomorrow.

Master the core TDD workflow: "Red, Green, Refactor" for iterative, quality-driven developmentBuild and extend behaviors with clear, executable specificationsDesign for exceptional cases and edge conditions to prevent costly surprisesSustain a healthy, maintainable test suite with proven, long-term strategiesUse test doubles to isolate dependencies and keep your tests fast and focusedApply TDD techniques to legacy codebases, making old software testable and reliableUnderstand the business impact of wholehearted TDD: fewer defects, faster feature delivery, and greater adaptabilityExplore how TDD principles extend across languages, frameworks, and modern agentic AI development Take a practical step towards fewer bugs and smoother releases by exploring TDD at your own pace, with targeted examples and guidance you can actually use.