How do you use Gherkin language to structure your BDD scenarios and avoid ambiguity?

1 What is Gherkin language?

Gherkin is a simple and structured language that is used to write BDD scenarios in a human-readable and executable way. Gherkin uses keywords, such as Given, When, Then, And, and But, to define the context, actions, and expected results of each scenario. Gherkin also supports comments, tags, tables, and parameters to add more details and flexibility to the scenarios. Gherkin scenarios are usually stored in plain text files with the .feature extension, and can be run by various testing tools, such as Cucumber, SpecFlow, and Behat.

2 Why is Gherkin useful for BDD?

Gherkin has several benefits for BDD, such as enabling a common understanding and communication among the different roles involved in the development process, providing a clear and concise specification of the system behavior and acceptance criteria, facilitating test automation and verification, and promoting collaboration and feedback. It allows product owners, developers, testers, and analysts to have a shared understanding of the project, while also providing a source of truth and documentation. Additionally, it enables scenarios to be mapped directly to the underlying code and executed by testing tools, as well as encourages stakeholders to review and refine the scenarios iteratively.

3 How do you write Gherkin scenarios?

Writing effective Gherkin scenarios requires following certain best practices. Begin with a descriptive and meaningful title that summarizes the goal or value of the scenario. Structure the scenario using the Given-When-Then format, and write from the user's perspective, using their language and terminology. Keep sentences simple and declarative, avoiding ambiguity, vagueness, or complexity. Use And and But keywords sparingly to add clarity or avoid repetition. Tags can be used to categorize and filter scenarios based on criteria such as priority, feature, or user role. Tables and parameters should be used to provide examples and data for the scenarios, instead of hard-coding values or duplicating scenarios.

4 How do you avoid ambiguity in Gherkin scenarios?

Ambiguity in Gherkin scenarios can lead to confusion and errors in the development and testing process, so it is important to ensure that your scenarios are consistent, precise, and unambiguous. To do this, you should use a consistent style and format for all scenarios, create a glossary to define and standardize the terms used, use a domain-specific language to capture the domain logic and rules of your system, include assertions and verifications to specify the expected results and outcomes, use examples and scenario outlines to illustrate and parameterize your scenarios, and avoid using synonyms and variations, generic or vague terms, subjective or unclear terms such as "should", "might", or "looks good", or abstract or generic scenarios.

5 How do you test your Gherkin scenarios?

To test your Gherkin scenarios, you need to use a testing tool that supports Gherkin syntax and execution, such as Cucumber, SpecFlow, or Behat. These tools allow you to link your scenarios to the corresponding code snippets or step definitions that implement the logic and actions of each scenario. Therefore, in order to test Gherkin scenarios, you must set up your testing environment and tool configuration, install the required dependencies and libraries, write your step definitions in a programming language such as Java, Ruby, or Python, and use annotations or regular expressions to match them to the Gherkin keywords. Additionally, you must write feature files containing Gherkin scenarios and organize them in a logical and modular way. Then, you can run the feature files as tests either individually or in batches to check the results and reports generated by the testing tool. Finally, it is important to refactor and optimize your feature files and step definitions while applying good coding practices like naming conventions, comments, and modularity.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?