Conclusion

Well, we've been through a lot together: we learned the fundamentals of TDD, how to write descriptive feature tests, how to refactor effectively, and we practiced BDD — stepping in and out as we created a fully functional chat app. But all journeys must come to an end.

Before parting, let's take a moment to see what we have accomplished. We've written an entire application without opening our browsers. When was the last time you did that? You can now see what we've created by launching Phoenix's server with mix phx.server.

I hope this book has given you a taste of TDD, and I hope you see how useful it can be for your career. But I'd also like to remind you of something I said during the introduction of the book: TDD is a skill, and as such, it requires practice.

You have given yourself a chance to learn TDD by sticking through this book. I now encourage you to reap the benefits of TDD by practicing the skill in your daily programming. It's very easy to revert to your previous way of working — writing the implementation first and leaving tests as an afterthought. But don't do it. If you want to see lasting change, you'll need to practice. So please practice. In the end, I think you'll find the rewards far exceed the costs.

Thank you for reading this book and taking this journey with me. I wish you the best in your test-driven future. Until next time.