Not testing at all
There is a belief that TDD doesn’t apply to some scenarios in which it does – for example, if your code is throwaway or if it’s presumed to never need modification once it’s deployed. Believing this is almost ensuring the opposite is true. Code, particularly code without tests, has a habit of living on beyond its intended lifespan.
Fear of deleting code
In addition to reducing the fear of changing code, tests also reduce the fear of removing code. Without tests, you’ll read some code and think “maybe something uses this code for some purpose I don’t quite remember.” With tests in place, this won’t be a concern. You’ll read the test, see that the test no longer applies due to a changed requirement, and then delete the test and its corresponding production code.
However, there are several scenarios in which not writing tests is acceptable. The two most important ones are as follows.
