History of RSpec – Steven R. Baker

In 2001 I started teaching Test-Driven Development to teams. Back then it was still a fairly new concept. Few teams had automated tests of any kind, and fewer still had heard of XP and TDD. Writing tests first and using the practise as a design activity was a completely foreign concept, and folks had a really hard time grasping it. (This fact hasn’t changed entirely, two decades on.)It was a tough sell in those days. I worked hard to present the concepts in the best way possible, and to bring teams around. But it was really difficult, and I struggled. More importantly, and the problem I aimed to solve: the people I was teaching struggled.One of the common problems I was experiencing in those days was people having trouble with the word “test.” Not just the word “test” but all of the vocabulary around TDD was, understandly, very test-centric. People were very confused. “You can’t test something that doesn’t exist,” they used to say, and often they’d be smug and add, “therefore your entire premise is flawed.” The word “test” was giving them an excuse to disregard a concept and method that I found very valuable, and I sought to change that.