On March 18, 2019, I gave a webinar entitled, “What is Behavior-Driven Development, and How Do We Practice It?” in collaboration with Paul Merrill and his company, Beaufort Fairmont. It was both a pleasure and an honor to do this webinar with them. Paul is a top-notch test automation expert, and Beaufort Fairmont is doing really exciting things. Check out their two-day BDD training offering, as well as their blog and other webinars.

To see my webinar recording, register here.

During the webinar, attendees asked more questions than we could answer. I’m excited that so many people asked questions. My answers are below.

Questions about Process

How is BDD different from TDD (Test-Driven Development)?

BDD is an evolution of TDD. In TDD, developers (1) write unit tests and watch them fail, (2) develop the feature to make the tests pass, (3) refactor the code to make it stronger, and (4) repeat the cycle. In BDD, teams do this same loop with feature tests (a.k.a “acceptance” or “black-box” tests) as well as unit tests. Furthermore, BDD adds shift left practices like Example Mapping and Specification by Example so that teams know what they are doing and focus on developing the right things.

Check out Dan North’s article, Introducing BDD, for a more thorough answer.

Can BDD be used with manual testing?

Yes! BDD is not merely an automation tool – it is a set of pragmatic practices to help teams develop better software. Gherkin scenarios are first and foremost behavior specs that help a team’s collaboration and accountability. They function secondarily as test cases that can be executed either manually or with automation.

Can we use BDD with technical stories or backend features?

Yes! If you can describe it, then you can do it.

How many Gherkin scenarios should one story have?

There’s no hard rule, but I recommend no more than a handful of rules per story, and no more than a handful of examples per rule. If you do Example Mapping and feel overwhelmed by the number of cards for a story, then the story should probably be broken into smaller stories.

Should we do Example Mapping for every story? Spending 20-30 minutes for each story would take a long time.

Try doing Example Mapping on one or two stories to start. The first time is always rough, but as you iterate on it, you’ll get better as a team. Even though Example Mapping has an upfront time cost, it will save a lot of time later in the sprint because (a) acceptance criteria is clear, (b) tests are already written, and (c) everyone has a mutual understanding of the story. The team won’t suffer through the inefficiencies of miscommunication and poor planning. You may even want to replace planning meeting with Example Mapping meetings.

What metrics should we use with BDD?

All metrics are flawed, but some metrics are useful. All the standard testing and Agile metrics still apply: code coverage, story velocity, etc. Here are some additional metrics you may consider for BDD:

• the percentage of stories that undergo Example Mapping before the sprint
• the number of rules and examples that get “missed” during Example Mapping and need to be added later
• the percentage of Gherkin scenarios that get automated in the sprint

If you choose to track metrics, make sure their feedback is used to improve team practices. For more info on metrics, please read my Quality Metrics 101 series.

What were the resources you recommended at the end of the webinar?

• Automation Panda
• Cucumber
• SpecSolutions
• The Cucumber Book
• BDD in Action

Questions about Tools

What test management tools should we use with BDD?

I’m sure there are BDD plugins for test management tools, but I don’t have any that I can personally recommend. To be honest, I try to stay away from large test management tools like HP ALM, qTest, VersionOne. When doing BDD, the Gherkin feature files themselves should be the single source of truth for feature-level tests, and they should be version-controlled in a repository. Don’t fall into the trap of slapping “Given-When-Then” keywords onto existing functional tests – that’s not BDD.

Does Jira support Example Mapping?

I have not personally used any Jira plugin for Example Mapping. It looks like there is an Easy Agile User Story Maps plugin that is similar to but slightly different from Example Mapping.

Are there other good tools for BDD and Example Mapping?

• Cycle Automation provides a nice app with Gherkin steps out of the box, so you can automate tests without needing a programming language.
• TeamUp Labs provides an online Example Mapping tool.
• IDEs from JetBrains and Eclipse provide BDD plugins
• Gherkin Syntax Highlighting in Notepad++
• Gherkin Syntax Highlighting in Visual Studio Code
• Gherkin Syntax Highlighting in Atom
• Gherkin Syntax Highlighting in Chrome

What’s the difference between Gherkin, Cucumber, and SpecFlow?

• Gherkin is the Given-When-Then spec language.
• Cucumber is a company and its eponymous test framework that uses Gherkin.
• SpecFlow is Cucumber for .NET.

Questions about Testing

Can BDD test frameworks be used for unit testing?

Yes, but I don’t recommend it. BDD frameworks shine for black-box feature testing. They’re a bit too verbose for code-level unit tests. Read BDD 101: Unit, Integration, and End-to-End Tests for more info.

Can BDD test frameworks be used for integration testing?

Yes! See BDD 101: Unit, Integration, and End-to-End Tests.

How long should Gherkin scenarios be?

Scenarios should be bite-sized. Each scenario should focus on one individual behavior. There’s no hard rule, but I recommend single-digit step counts. Read BDD 101: Writing Good Gherkin for more info.

What are “step definitions” in Cucumber?

Step definitions are the methods in the automation code that execute the steps. When a BDD framework runs a Gherkin scenario as a test, it “glues” each step to a step definition based on some sort of string matching.

How can we minimize duplicate code within a BDD test framework?

Know your steps. Always search for existing steps before writing new steps. Refactor existing steps whenever appropriate. Reuse steps when writing new scenarios. Do pair programming or mob programming when writing scenarios. Put scenarios through code reviews. Apply good coding practices – remember, test automation is software.

I write Gherkin scenarios, but I don’t write test automation code. What’s the best way to write Gherkin scenarios so that they can be automated?

Do pair programming with the automation engineers to write Gherkin scenarios together. Become familiar with existing steps by reading and searching feature files. Otherwise, the Gherkin steps you write in isolation might not be usable. Remember, BDD is a team effort!

The examples in the webinar were all fairly basic. Do you have any examples with more complex systems?

I have some example projects on GitHub in Python and Java with some basic unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, but I don’t have any large-scale examples that I can share publicly.

We wrote hundreds of SpecFlow tests without the other Amigos. Now, there are large test gaps, and many steps aren’t reusable. What should we do?

I’m sorry to hear that. It’s not an uncommon story. There are two paths: (1) refactoring or (2) starting over. Without really knowing the situation, I don’t think it’s my place to say which way is better. Here are some questions to help guide your decision:

• What are your goals for testing and automation?
• What’s your overall quality and testing strategy?
• What parts of the code base are salvageable?
• What parts of the code base should be removed?
• If you started again from scratch, what would you do differently to make sure the same problems don’t reoccur?

I strongly recommend taking the Setting a Foundation for Successful Test Automation course from Test Automation University. (It’s free.) I also gave a talk about this very problem, Egad! How Do We Start Writing (Better) Tests?, at a few Python conferences.

We have a large BDD test suite with heavy coupling and slow execution times. The business amigos have also left the company. Should we try to fix what we have or just start over?

Sorry to hear that; same answer as before.

Final Questions

Why do you call yourself the “Automation Panda”?

Pandas are awesome. Everybody loves them. And nobody forgets my moniker.

Where can I get team training in BDD?

Beaufort Fairmont provides a one- or two-day course in BDD and writing Gherkin. Sign up for more information here.