TDD in Agitator and Team System
Today, I received e-mail from Tim Anderson of Tim Anderson’s ITWriting that he wrote an article on Reg Developer comparing Agitator and Team System’s testing tools, and their use in Test-Driven Development (TDD) (Agitating Java and testing Windows).
Team System is a huge step forward for Microsoft, bringing testing into the heart of the development process. That said, I would prefer to see less emphasis on the distinct Tester role and more emphasis on test-driven development. Some features in the Tester edition, like test management and web tests, should also be in the Developer version. This sort of product partitioning is always frustrating, especially for small teams or solo developers, who will still need the full suite
A frequent point of discussion on Team System centers around the role-specific offerings, and why one feature or another is not included in another role-based product. We have some who applaud the recognition of the specialized tester role, while others trumpet the generalization of software roles, which is most evident in organizations following agile methodologies.
There’s an interesting thread related to this in the comments to David Anderson’s post (Cay We Build a Software Factory?).
The role-based SKUs are offered because of customer demand for a crimped product at a lower price. As it is difficult to predict the precise requirements for crimping, we offer a selection of three. We had to give them names, and those names were chosen around roles. It is probably not the best choice.
You will never find the MSF folks talking about Team System other than holistically, to really get the full benefit in terms of ROI we believe that you need the whole system and that you need to utilize the methodology including the reporting and the management guidance around reporting that we provide.
From: David Anderson in comments on Cay We Build a Software Factory?
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