TDD supports the paradigm of Software Engineering as an Engineering field. Design, plan, build, test. Chartered Engineers have qualifications for their skills

TDD supports the paradigm of Software Engineering as an Engineering field. Design, plan, build, test. Chartered Engineers have qualifications for their skills to do this - whether it's building bridges, designing circuits, or making cars. Most programming is not Engineering. It's scripting. Hacking together a quick solution to meet the user's immediate needs. Huge businesses (including the company I work for) have some really weak points in their production flow. They're planning factory operations using some shoddy macros in Microsoft Excel thrown together by some businessperson with no programming experience. Management won't change it, because "it works". Other fields of Engineering (civil, electronic, mechanical) have serious life-threatening consequences if they fail. Software rarely has that risk. (Insert comment about healthcare systems and WannaCry here). For times when software carries serious risk, then TDD is still important! The rest of the time, it's a burden.