[radicalbyte]

Excellent post, I've had exactly the same experience and come to exactly the same conclusion.

I still follow the old Code Complete method: think about the problem, sketch it out, then finally implement with unit tests. The results are the same, and it's a lot less painful than greenhorn-TDD.

[_random_]

I do this as well. Prototyping needs flexibility and unit tests slow down refactoring. If you are familiar with SOLID then your design will be not bad even without test-first approach.

[searls]

Time at a white board breaking down a problem is rarely wasted :)

[collyw]

I completely agree with this. I fact when I have a bigger architectural problem to think about I like to sit on it for a day or two, thinking about one or two designs that would work. It takes a while to see the strengths / flaws in each design and jumping in to code you won't realize problems until you have something half implemented.