Agile test driven development

Question

What is a good way to introduce to managers, who are have always used a waterfall software development mental model, sometimes known as the V model, that it is worth moving to a more agile-Test Driven development?

Currently when I have the conversation and suggest that my group should try writing tests early on the development cycle, e.g before spending time writing code, I get the "CRAZY" look, and a dogmatic response "That will never work", colleagues are also quite sceptical.

Has anyone had any success in moving their team from thinking waterfall/V-model to a more test-driven development model?

Answer 1

Taking the waterfall model in agile would be a good idea but there seems to be a misunderstanding on your part regarding the concept of test driven development.

Test driven development doesn't mean agile, neither does it mean just writing test cases early. It means that tests are written first and these tests drive the programming. That means the programmers will write code that will comply to the written test cases.

Although it would be a good idea to involve testing as early as possible, it should not be restricted to only writing test cases, but in fact doing actual testing. You can start by testing the requirements of the project. Find any issues there and get them fixed. Then go down the process up to the delivery and maintenance.

Now this can be done in waterfall as well. It does not require agile. Actually which model you will follow for project development should not be fixed. You should decided what will be best for each project and adapt and improvise accordingly.