Who This Book Is For

This book is written to help C++ programmers of all skill levels, from novices with a fundamental understanding of the language to old salts steeped in language esoterica. If you’ve been away from C++ for some time, you’ll find that the rapid feedback cycles of TDD will help you rapidly reramp up on the language.

While the goal of this book is to teach TDD, you will find value in this book regardless of your TDD experience. If you are a complete novice to the concept of writing unit tests for your code, I’ll take you small step by small step through the basics of TDD. If you are fairly new to TDD, you’ll discover a wealth of expert advice throughout the book, all presented in simple fashion with straightforward examples. Even seasoned test-drivers should find some useful nuggets of wisdom, a stronger theoretical basis for the practice, and some new topics for exploration.

If you are a skeptic, you’ll explore TDD from several angles. I’ll inject my thoughts throughout about why I think TDD works well, and I’ll also share experiences about when it didn’t work so well and why. The book is not a sales brochure but an eyes-open exploration of a transformative technique.

Readers of all stripes will also find ideas for growing and sustaining TDD on their team. It’s easy to get started with TDD, but your team will encounter many challenges along the way. How can you prevent these challenges from derailing your transition effort? How do you prevent such disasters? I present some ideas that I’ve seen work well in Chapter 11, ​Growing and Sustaining TDD​.