Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is an agile software development process that makes use of continuous real-world examples through which we define the behavior expectations from the system. The main objective of BDD methodology is to encourage communication amongst the stakeholders of the project so that there is a clear understanding of the problem and its desired solution.
By inspiring developers to pay attention only on the desired performances of an app or program, BDD plays an important part in trimming down the excess, the bloat, unnecessary codes, and redundant features—all the factors that shift focus from the real problem to be solved. This methodology is an extension of test-driven development (TDD) as it is written in a shared language that streamlines communication between developers, non-technical people, and stakeholders.
A typical BDD project initiates with a conversation between the developers, managers, and customer; this communication helps in the evolution of the framework regarding how a product is envisioned to work. What is expected from the project is now set as a goal for the developers. The project is set to be delivered to the customer after all the behavior tests are aced and the product meet its desired requirements.
What specialize in BDD compared to other development techniques?
In BDD, software acceptance testing, or end-user testing (test to check if the product serves the purpose of the end user) serve as the starting point for software design., They assist in the establishment of a clear channel of communication between stakeholders and the development team.
The major problem in development of software is to ensure that all the stakeholders are perfectly aware of what exactly is happening. Here, BDD makes its presence strongly felt as it serves as a powerful communication tool that brings all the stakeholders on a single platform to ensure that everyone is aware of what is needed. This in turns promotes greater clarity and cooperation between both technical and nontechnical people involved in the project.
The primary objective of behavior-driven development approach as such is to ensure that everyone in the team can read and write acceptance tests. Of course, it is the code written by developers that automates the tests, but BDD ensures that everyone can comprehend its essence.
Few distinguishing features of BDD in comparisons to other development techniques are enumerated as following:
Strong Collaboration:
No development skills are required for creating tests, which means product owners, developers, and testers are aware of how the project is progressing.
Shorter Learning Curve:
Since BDD is explained using ubiquitous language, it becomes easier to grasp for all the stakeholders involved.
High Visibility:
Since it is a non-technical process, it can resonate with a larger audience.
Rapid Iterations:
With BDD, it is easy to make improvements as the response time for responding to users’ feedback is curtailed.
Less Wastage:
BDD helps in clear communication of what is required, which in turn results in better understanding and subsequently less rework.
Focus on User Needs:
Happy customers are good for businesses and the BDD methodology is all about focusing on end users need.
Meets Business Objectives:
With BDD, each development is linked to the actual business objectives.
Flow of BDD:
BDD is an evolved version of Test-Driven Development, as it makes use of the ideas and general techniques of TDD. In addition, BDD combines it with ideas from domain-driven design and object-oriented analysis, which in turn provides analysts and developers with the shared processes and specialized tools for BDD to facilitate collaboration on software development. In short, it shows how software development should be a seamless integration of business interests and technical insight.
The first step of BDD involves creation of a goal. This goal is translated into features and stories. In order to ensure that the behavior is understood by all the stakeholders involved, it is written in a language that all can understand.
A Given context: Preconditions
When the event occurs: Actions
Then an outcome: Results
Sample Feature File
Scenario: Withdrawing cash from an ATM
Given: The user inserts the card in the machine
When: User need to enter pin and other details
Then: The cash successfully dispersed
This is the outcome of BDD. Whatever tests is written must adhere to the Given-When-Then, which in turn makes the entire software testing process easy.
Features of BDD
- Inculcating a focus-shift from “tests” to “behavior”
- A collective effort between developers, non-technical people, QA team, and stakeholders.
- Ubiquitous language that is easy to comprehend
- Driven by Business Value
- Goes one over Test Driven Development (TDD) using a natural language easy for non-technical people to understand.
The ‘Given-When-Then’ formula
One way to go about writing the BDD test cases for a user story is through the application of the template:
The Given context + When an action is carried out + Then this should be the observable consequence
Take for instance:
Given the User wishes to book a ticket
When they click the submit button
Then proper message should be displayed for further action
The proposed template is created using tools like JBehave, RSpec or Cucumber. Cucumber Open, which is a Java framework for BDD is the world’s leading tool for BDD. It facilitates writing tests in a language that can be understood by both technical and non-technical person. The language that Cucumber recognizes is known as Gherkin.
A real-world example for BDD:
Given a barbie doll costs $15
When we sell Tina the doll
Then the amount the customer should pay is $15
That is,
A context is Given
When an event occurs
Then it shall result in an outcome
Benefits of BDD framework for your business
Promotes collaboration:
BDD uses a language everyone can understand. This in turn promotes collaboration and allows everyone to active engage during the software development.
High visibility:
Since BDD utilizes a language everyone can understand, all the stakeholders are aware of how the project is progressing.
The software design lays emphasis on business values and needs:
Clients can easily communicate their priorities, which in turn help developers offer a more tailored product with minimal wastage of resources.
Lower costs:
Clear communication eliminates misconceptions and misunderstanding, which significantly reduces the overall cost of the project
Facing difficulties in project? Utilize BDD process
Behavior-driven development (BDD) is a set of best practices that enables organizations to develop software centered around real-world problems with real-world users. Earlier, a lot of superficiality crept into the project as the focus was on technical solutions. This has changed as BDD focuses on the actual end-users who would be using the software.
If you are facing difficulties in software development because of incomplete or misaligned information, which is resulting in frustrations from end users, please give us a call. Outsource your software development requirements and our BDD experts would be glad to give you a hand.