Dipping your toes in the water with test-driven development

Akshay is anxious to have cutlets. He can’t wait to sink his tooth into the cripsy, brown delicacies. He  quickly boils some potatoes in a pot, mixes them hurriedly with some chilly, salt and pepper, pats the mixture into round shaped patties and sautes them on the pan greased with oil. Finally, he eats them. Oops. The potatoes are only half-boiled. He has added too little chilly, too much salt. The oil had not heated properly before Akshay tossed the cutlets in it for shallow frying. Some cutlets are still raw. Akshay thinks to himself: “Next time I should test the results after each step of cooking.”

Bharani is more methodical. She starts with a skewer. The skewer bounces off the surface of the potato. “So this is how hard they are”, she thinks, “They need a 10-minute boiling. After that, the skewer should go 2 inches inside”. After the potatoes are done, she tests with the skewer again and is satisfied with the texture. She mashes them and puts a small sample of the mash into her mouth. The bland taste gives her an estimate of how much spices should be added. She starts with a teaspoon of chilly and salt, kneads the mash well. After 10 seconds of mashing, she tastes a sample. She adjusts the chilly and salt as per her liking and then pats the mash into round shaped patties. Next she heats some oil on a pan. She waits until the oil sizzles. Then she drops a tiny piece from one of the patties and checks how it fries. The piece comes out golden brown and cripsy. Now Bharani is ready to lay all the patties on the pan. In the end,  she enjoys some tasty cutlets.

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