The one true way

in a recent post uncle bob talks about BDD and compare it to a table based style of test definition.Ii don’t want to talk about that.

i do however want to comment on the following quote:

My issue is not with the tools. My issue is with the idea that BDD is the only true way, and that all tests should be expressed in GWT format forever and ever amen.

Lets revise this statement. In fact lets just remove the part where BDD is mention and we get:

My issue is not with the tools. My issue is with the idea that _____ is the only true way

How many times have you been in a discussion which went along these lines? how many blogs have you seen advocating for “single and best” solution?

I myself have seen these kind too many times. I’ve seen it in the context of design, testing, code convention, SCM’s,coding languages, methodologies, you name it.

ENOUGH!

In this short and simple sentence Uncle Bob captured what I believe too many people are tending to forget. People tend to forget that every problem and I mean every problem has a context. And that context dictates whether a specific tool/solution/approach is good or bad. In our profession there are no simple answers and straight forward solutions, silver bullets do not exists.

What distinguish a true professional from the rest, is the ability to use many techniques and approaches, picking from them a correct solution for a given problem.

Beware of people that preaches “Mine is the only true way”.

Posted in: Agile Values,Random Thoughts