What is meant by the acceptance test driven development?

Test driven development is nowadays quite popular among the programmers and developers and is gaining new heights. More and more software programmers and developers are now approving of the test driven development.  

Test driven development now seems to be making its mark after it is being considered as an individual software development process rather than being related to the first programming concepts of the agile software development methodology called the “extreme programming or XP”. 

Many different types of the test driven development have been identified such as the acceptance test driven development, traditional unit test driven development etc.

This piece of writing has entirely been dedicated to the acceptance test driven development methodology. But before we move on to the acceptance test driven development, we should be familiar with the usual test driven development process so that we get a better understanding of the acceptance test driven development. 

Steps in Test Driven Development

Test driven development is a development methodology unlike others which involves the creation of tests before the actual production of the code for the functionalities. The development cycles are shorter than the normal or usual software development cycles and consist of the following steps:

1. Addition of tests for new features that should fail.
2. Writing of code which enables the tests to pass.
3. Finally the refactoring of the code.

Styles in test Driven Development

Above 3 steps constitute a shorter development cycle that is repeated several times till the code is considered to be perfect and complete in all aspects. Several approaches or development styles have been developed like:

1. YAGNI (you ain’t gonna need it)
2. KISS (keep it simple stupid)
3. Fake it till you make it and so on.

All the development styles of the test driven development follow the two basic steps:

1. Writing of the automated unit tests before the actual features and functionalities are implemented in to the design of the software system or application.

2. Failing the above written tests: Every automated unit test is expected to fail because then only it is said to be working properly.

What is Acceptance Test Driven Development?

1. It is a development strategy that helps in building coordination in the software project so that the software product is delivered exactly as needed by the customer or the client and also in this the required functionalities are not implemented halfway. 

2. Acceptance test driven development methodology involves one or more than one customer tests for testing the customer centred features.

3. Here the requirements are treated as the executable tests.

4. We can say that the acceptance test driven development is way of bring the stake holders together on an early basis for the clarification of the requirements and thus bridging the gap between the requirements and the tests.

5. Acceptance test driven development involves the collaboration of whole development team in defining the acceptance criteria and finally turn them in to a set of distinct acceptance tests before the starting of the development process. 

6. It can be considered as a good means to know that what is being developed.

7. Acceptance test driven development is categorized under the category of agile software development process.

8. It involves the extension of the test first approach to front end of the software system or application under development process. 

9. The acceptances test like the other entire test driven development variants must fail.

10. Customers want a software product that increases productivity, helps in making more money, improving operation capability and so on. 

11. This is what is delivered with the help of the acceptance test driven development.