Some key positive results include: (1) TDD helps scientific developers increase software quality, in particular functionality and reliability and (2) TDD helps scientific developers reduce the number of problems in the early phase of projects. To help scientific developers determine whether TDD is appropriate for their scientific projects, we surveyed scientific developers who use TDD to understand: (1) TDDs effectiveness, (2) the benefits and challenges of using TDD, and (3) the use of refactoring practices (an important part of the TDD process). Even with this increasing use of TDD, the effect of TDD on scientific software development is not fully understood. Specifically, scientists are beginning to use Test-Driven Development (TDD). Scientific software developers are increasingly employing various software engineering practices.
