Test Driven Development is a development methodology that encourages you to write tests before writing the code that is being tested. Following it completely strictly means that you never make a functional change to the code (that is, adding a new feature or fixing a bug) until you have a failing test that implementing the feature or fixing the bug will cause to pass.

For those who are not used to writing tests, such a strict methodology can feel quite daunting, potentially unproductive and perhaps fun-spoiling. I can empathize with all three points of view, but at the same time it's worth trying almost everything at least once to see how it works out (though I'm still not so keen on trying a bungee jump).

In this article I'm going to look at the idea of automated testing more generally. I'll share a couple of my experiences of it, then I'll look at some thoughts for giving it a go in your own environment.

=== Why Automate Testing? ===...