Open Tech Calendar

Our February event brings Seb Rose to present 10 things you should know about BDD, Cucumber, and SpecFlow

Cucumber and SpecFlow are quite recent additions to the software development toolbox. Sometimes it feels like we’re using a hammer to drive in a screw, so in this session we’ll explore what they're good for and when to use them. We’ll also look at what problems they don’t help with and when not to use them.

As you might expect, I’m a huge fan of using these tools, as part of a well thought out approach to Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) or Specification By Example (SBE). I’ve also seen the pain of organisations who have tried using them from a pure test automation perspective, and this is one of the misapplications that we’ll talk about.

We’ll look at a further 9 specific, actionable recommendations for using Cucumber/SpecFlow well, including how to write maintainable executable specifications, organising large suites of specifications in an accessible way and where Cucumber/SpecFlow fit into an agile development process.

By the end of this session you’ll know enough to decide whether your problems are more like a screw or a nail – and whether Cucumber/SpecFlow is the right hammer.
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BDD Books 1: Discovery - Gáspár Nagy & Seb Rose
Now available from Leanpub - bddbooks.com

The Cucumber for Java Book - Seb Rose, Matt Wynne & Aslak Hellesøy
Now available from the Pragmatic Press - pragprog.com