The Trinity

Refactoring, Patterns and Automated Testing have always been important, but separate thoughts in the community.

As I continue on this project they are becoming more and more tightly coupled.

Testing leads to code. As the code becomes more mature, I begin to see patterns that apply (or often go looking). When the pattern is clear, I refactor. As I refactor (using the tests to save my ass), the patterns continue to emerge. Often this leads to me thinking about more tests that need to be written, because now I understand how the business works in the code, and deviant cases become more obvious.

I stop before the code is right. At some point the ROI on refactoring is no longer worth the effort. Besides it will change next sprint anyways.