I don't think that any of the common development methodologies are crap. I see no problem with writing tests as a way to work out ideas. I see no problem with n

I don't think that any of the common development methodologies are crap. I see no problem with writing tests as a way to work out ideas. I see no problem with not doing so. I think the main flaw in these methodologies is that they assume people problem solve in the same way. It only becomes a problem when you have a methodology zealot telling you to work in that way only. I am happy to write unit tests to cover my code. Unit tests can and do prevent bugs/outages in many cases. What I do think is kind of crap is the holy war of methodologies that exists. In my experience, it usually happens that some new CTO or other manager comes in and says, "We are doing it wrong! From this day forward, WE ALL MUST USE TDD/AGILE/WATERFALL/YOURFAVORITEWAYHERE". There is no latitude given, and folks who are not used to the methodology now take 1.5 to 3x longer to complete things, and deadlines slip. Then the push to complete work means that things get written sloppily and tests are not well thought out or people arent fooing their bar with the baz properly. Quality suffers in the short term, but eventually everyone catches on, and life goes back to normal. Then the new CTO shows up...