Studying test-driven development and its retainment over a six-month time spank

In this paper, we investigate the effect of TDD, as compared to a non-TDD approach, as well as its retainment (or retention) over a time span of (about) six months. To pursue these objectives, we conducted a (quantitative) longitudinal cohort study with 30 novice developers (i.e., third-year undergraduate students in Computer Science). We observed that TDD affects neither the external quality of software products nor developers' productivity. However, we observed that the participants applying TDD produced significantly more tests, with a higher fault-detection capability, than those using a non-TDD approach. As for the retainment of TDD, we found that TDD is retained by novice developers for at least six months. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study found that TDD did not affect the external quality of software products or developers' productivity, but it did lead to developers producing more tests with higher fault-detection capability. Additionally, novice developers were able to retain the skill of using TDD for at least six months.