What Is BDD in Software Development

The development of software is often hindered by overwork, which results in wasted time and resources for both engineers and business professionals. Miscommunication between these two parties can be the bottleneck to project progress because sometimes engineering teams don’t fully understand what businesses need from their products while business team members misunderstand the capabilities of technical staff.

Behavior-driven development is a practice that aims to bridge the gap of miscommunication and confusion between developers, testers, project managers. It focuses on writing down your requirements in plain language so all team members can understand them clearly.

BDD is a process that is designed to aid the management and delivery of software development projects by enhancing communication between engineers and business professionals. By doing so, BDD ensures all development projects remain focused on delivering what the user needs while meeting requirements for use cases.

Key benefits of BDD

• All development work can be easily traced directly to the business objectives.
• Software development meets the needs of users. Satisfied users make good business.
• Efficient prioritization and critical features are delivered first.
• All of the parties have a shared understanding of the project so they can be involved in the communication.
• A shared language makes sure that everyone has thorough visibility into the progress of the project.
• The resulting software design matches with existing and supports the evolving needs of the business.
• Improved quality code by reducing maintenance costs and minimizing project risk.

The BDD approach involves two parts. The first one is the practice of using examples written in language that everyone understands (users will interact with a product) to illustrate behaviors for users.

The second part of testing is to use examples as the basis for automated tests. This ensures that the system works throughout its lifetime and also counts towards checking functionality for users.

BDD was firstly introduced by Dan North, an experienced technology and organization consultant based in London. BDD is a means of clearing confusion between developers, testers, and business people. 

Do you want to know about wireframes, then click here: what is wireframe in software development?