> I write a bunch of SQL scripts and then maybe take it into a python toolkit for stats stuff. That sounds a lot like a test (or set of tests). It would appear

> I write a bunch of SQL scripts and then maybe take it into a python toolkit for stats stuff. That sounds a lot like a test (or set of tests). It would appear that you are already doing something akin to TDD, although perhaps without the formality of turning your exploratory work into documentation for other developers to read about what you learned. > Why not do TDD? I find the interfaces are more naturally expressed as the consumer than the implementer. If exploration is necessary to find the right interface that may be worthwhile, but I find when the requirements are well defined the interface is obvious before writing either tests or implementation. It may be still worth writing unit tests up front, but it is not testing that is driving your development. The requirements are driving your development in that case.