Is there hard evidence of the ROI of unit testing?

Question

Unit testing sounds great to me, but I\'m not sure I should spend any time really learning it unless I can convince others that is has significant value. I have to convince

Answer 1

We've demonstrated with hard evidence that it's possible to write crappy software without Unit Testing. I believe there's even evidence for crappy software with Unit Testing. But this is not the point.

Unit Testing or Test Driven Development (TDD) is a Design technique, not a test technique. Code that's written test driven looks completely different from code that is not.

Even though this is not your question, I wonder if it's really the easiest way to go down the road and answer questions (and bring evidence that might be challenged by other reports) that might be asked wrong. Even if you find hard evidence for your case - somebody else might find hard evidence against.

Is it the business of the bean counters to determine how the technical people should work? Are they providing the cheapest tools in all cases because they believe you don't need more expensive ones?

This argument is either won based on trust (one of the fundamental values of agile teams) or lost based on role power of the winning party. Even if the TDD-proponents win based on role power I'd count it as lost.