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Comment on Why we shift testing left: A software dev cycle that doesn’t scaleparent

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"Shift left" is a relatively hot, relatively new catchall bizterm that typically makes one visualize pushing a workload "upstream" from its current place in the flow. In this context, I think TDD is close to what it means.

"Shift left" is a relatively hot, relatively new catchall bizterm that typically makes one visualize pushing a workload "upstream" from its current place in the flow.

I've been shifting left (and using those words) for over two decades. Nothing new here.

In this context, I think TDD is close to what it means.

Nope. It's only close in that both have to do with testing.

TDD is you writing unit tests. Shifting left is about parallelizing someone else's work in the rest of the test pyramid. If QA can write their integration/system/contract/other tests as you're writing your code, you can have working tests for new features ideally as soon as the feature is runnable/testable instead of QA waiting to "see what the dev code does" to write against it.

Thank you, that helps clear things up. The original article takes a very long time to get to its points.

Like the first commenter in this thread, I’d never heard the term “shifting left” before. That’s surprising for a buzzword you say has been around for decades and is hot right now, but I guess there’s a first time for everything!

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