Another week, another installment of the Martin Fowler interview. Here he goes into why he believes the “code a little, test a little” mindset works so well:
There's an impossible-to-express quality about test-first design that gives you a sense of unhurriedness. You are actually moving very quickly, but there's an unhurriedness because you are creating little micro-goals for yourself and satisfying them. At each point you know you are doing one micro-goal piece of work, and it's done when the test passes. That is a very calming thing. It reduces the scope of what you have to think about. You don't have to think about everything you have to do in the class.