An Ultimate Guide To BDD

• 01:05 BDD's origins and focus
• 04:37 Example of BDD test vs traditional test
• 07:58 Benefits of BDD approach
• 16:12 BDD translation process

In this video, Dave Farley discusses Behavior Driven Development (BDD) and its importance in software development. BDD is often misunderstood, with many people thinking of tools like Cucumber and SpecFlow. However, it's more about the approach to design and development rather than testing tools. BDD focuses on creating specifications for visible behavior and describing it from the point of view of users, allowing better communication between all parties involved in the development process.

Farley explains that one of the main problems with traditional testing is that it's tightly coupled to the code it's testing. It's hard to understand, maintain, and reuse. By treating tests as specifications with BDD, users are forced to think about the design of their software from the outside, leading to better, more easily understood and maintainable code.

In BDD, tests are written as scenarios in the language of the problem domain, making them easier for both technical and non-technical people to understand. The approach starts with a vague idea of what users want and requires a translation process that refines the idea in steps. First, a user story is created, followed by concrete examples (acceptance criteria), and then further refined into an executable specification. When the tests pass, the translation process is complete.

Overall, BDD has a significant impact on software development quality and is an effective way to drive quality into designs while retaining the freedom to change and learn as the project progresses.