The disadvantages of TDD
Just like everything else in the world, TDD has some disadvantages. The main ones are listed here:
- No silver bullet: Tests help to find bugs, but they can't find all bugs that you introduce in the test code and implementation code. If you haven't understood the problem you need to solve, writing tests most probably won't help.
- It seems slower at the beginning: When you start TDD, you will get the feeling that it takes longer to make easy implementations. You need to think about the interfaces, write the test code, and run the tests before you can finally start writing the code.
- All the members of a team need to do it: As TDD influences the design of code, it is recommended that either all the members of a team use TDD or no one at all. In addition to this, it's sometimes difficult to justify TDD to management because they often have the feeling that the implementation of new features takes longer if developers write code...
