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Ad Hoc Development vs Test Driven Development

Developers might use ad hoc development in emergency situations, such as fixing critical bugs under tight deadlines, prototyping ideas rapidly, or handling one-off tasks that don't justify a full development cycle meets developers should use tdd when building reliable, maintainable software, especially in agile environments or for complex systems where requirements evolve. Here's our take.

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Ad Hoc Development

Developers might use ad hoc development in emergency situations, such as fixing critical bugs under tight deadlines, prototyping ideas rapidly, or handling one-off tasks that don't justify a full development cycle

Ad Hoc Development

Nice Pick

Developers might use ad hoc development in emergency situations, such as fixing critical bugs under tight deadlines, prototyping ideas rapidly, or handling one-off tasks that don't justify a full development cycle

Pros

  • +It's useful for quick problem-solving in environments like startups, hackathons, or when dealing with legacy systems where formal processes are impractical
  • +Related to: rapid-prototyping, debugging

Cons

  • -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Test Driven Development

Developers should use TDD when building reliable, maintainable software, especially in agile environments or for complex systems where requirements evolve

Pros

  • +It helps catch defects early, improves code quality through refactoring, and provides a safety net for changes, making it ideal for projects requiring high test coverage or frequent iterations, such as web applications or APIs
  • +Related to: unit-testing, automated-testing

Cons

  • -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Ad Hoc Development if: You want it's useful for quick problem-solving in environments like startups, hackathons, or when dealing with legacy systems where formal processes are impractical and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Test Driven Development if: You prioritize it helps catch defects early, improves code quality through refactoring, and provides a safety net for changes, making it ideal for projects requiring high test coverage or frequent iterations, such as web applications or apis over what Ad Hoc Development offers.

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The Bottom Line
Ad Hoc Development wins

Developers might use ad hoc development in emergency situations, such as fixing critical bugs under tight deadlines, prototyping ideas rapidly, or handling one-off tasks that don't justify a full development cycle

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