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Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) in Our Project

What is BDD?​

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a software development approach focused on describing system behavior from the end user’s perspective. BDD improves communication between business teams, testers, and developers by using a shared, easy-to-understand language to describe functionality.

The core element of BDD is scenarios that define specific system behaviors in the Given-When-Then format:

  • Given — the initial context or preconditions
  • When — the action or event
  • Then — the expected outcome

These scenarios form the basis for automated acceptance and integration tests.

Goals of BDD​

  • Improve communication among business, QA, and development teams.
  • Create documentation in the form of understandable scenarios reflecting real user needs.
  • Automate tests at the behavioral level to increase software quality and stability.
  • Catch misunderstandings early by clarifying requirements.
  • Support ongoing development and maintenance with up-to-date, clear scenarios.

Benefits of Adopting BDD in Our Project​

  • Shared understanding of requirements: Enables cross-functional teams to work in a common language, reducing miscommunication risks.
  • Better code and test quality: Tests based on BDD scenarios are more practical and accurately reflect user expectations.
  • Faster feature delivery: Clearly defined expectations and tests speed up validation of new functionality.
  • CI/CD integration: BDD scenarios can be seamlessly integrated into CI/CD pipelines for automated behavior testing on every deployment.

How We Use BDD in Our Project​

  1. Defining scenarios: We create scenarios based on business requirements in Gherkin syntax:
Feature: User Login
  Scenario: Successful login
    Given the user is on the login page
    When the user enters valid credentials and clicks "Log in"
    Then the user is redirected to the dashboard

  1. Collaborative teamwork: Scenarios are written and reviewed together by business representatives, testers, and developers to confirm alignment with expectations.

  2. Test automation: Scenarios are automatically executed as integration and acceptance tests using tools like Cucumber, SpecFlow, or other BDD frameworks.

  3. Continuous improvement: Scenarios are regularly updated and extended as the system evolves, serving also as living functional documentation.

Common Pitfalls and Challenges in BDD​

  • Over-detailing: Including too many specifics can make scenarios hard to maintain and slow down development.
  • Lack of team collaboration: Insufficient involvement from business or QA can result in incomplete or poorly written scenarios.
  • Test overload: BDD doesn’t replace all testing; overusing behavioral tests at low levels can slow down CI/CD pipelines.
  • Maintenance burden: Scenarios must be reviewed and updated regularly to avoid becoming outdated documentation.
  • BDD with TestContainers and integration tests: Scenarios increasingly drive integration tests that spin up real services and databases in isolated environments.
  • Low-code/no-code tools for collaboration: Platforms like SpecFlow+, CucumberStudio, or LivingDoc enable non-technical users to view, edit, and comment on scenarios easily.
  • Automated documentation: BDD scenarios not only power tests but also generate up-to-date documentation for teams and clients.
  • BDD in microservices and event-driven architectures: Scenarios describe behaviors of individual services and their interactions, supporting end-to-end and integration testing.