Against Test-First

Against Test-First in synthesis:

CONS:

• negatively affects product quality:

• obliterates technical analysis/specification
  (which is the fundamental aberration, in theory and in practice)
  => conflating problem with solution domains;

• obliterates the separation coder/tester
  (akin to validating data models against the training sets)
  => conflating QA with the methods of production;

• negatively affects product/process development:

• obliterates external/internal distinctions (up to the worst RAD)
  (yet what we develop is *what allows building* what we sell, not directly it: whence, together with reasons of intrinsic and utmost complexity, software production driven by the commercial/PM/QA functions, once upon a time rather auxiliary, is just doomed)
  => no development proper: no consolidation of assets, nor of (sane) processes, even less of competences and the chance itself of acquiring those competences;

• enforces the gradual local change (up to TDD)
  (yet the normality hypothesis for program code is false)
  => no restructuring, no global perspective;

• glorifies and institutionalises the trial and error
  => no improvement, no global sanity;

PROS:

• none known so far!

See also:

• the notion of complex system up to that of phase transition in particular;

• the need for "radical (global/strategic/discontinuous) change" vs "gradual (local/tactical/smooth) change": the history and need for BPR over TQM specifically.

[CREATED 2023-04-11 21:49 UTC+2]