Test-Driven Development
By Neal Parikh, Brandie Nonnecke, and Ginny Fahs
Technology policy frequently does not work as intended. Often, policies in this space do not fully address the issues they are concerned with or have negative unintended consequences. Developing software was also once as ad-hoc and error-prone until robust methods for testing and writing software were developed. This white paper recommends applying one such framework, test-driven development (TDD), to policymaking to help develop more robust policies that are more likely to accurately address their issue of concern. The method does not require the use of engineering tools or software; it is simply a methodology that focuses on brainstorming concrete situations in which to “test” possible policy solutions.
This paper was completed as part of a project for the 2019 Aspen Tech Policy Hub Fellowship, a program to teach technology experts how to impact policy.
