Category Archives: bdd

Step Away from the Tools

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Liz

This may seem odd coming from someone who spent months coding a BDD tool, but seriously… put it down. Step away. BDD has taken off in the last few years, and lots of people have approached me for help. Many … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, testing | 20 Comments

Giving effective feedback: How to change your Code’s behaviour

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Liz

Have you ever wanted to change the behaviour of some code that you work with? I’d like to share a few techniques with you which have helped me to change the behaviour of code I’ve worked with, with little conflict, … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, humour, testing | Leave a comment

What not to test

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Liz

A couple of people have recently written asking for advice on how to start writing scenarios. In both instances, they have started by logging in, because “that’s what the users do first”. If you’re doing BDD, may I suggest starting … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, testing | 5 Comments

They’re not User Stories

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Liz

Reading Simon Baker’s post on metrics made me smile. I rant about similar misuse of metrics quite a lot. A common reason that I see targets and metrics fail is because they’re aimed at a perceived circle of responsibility – … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, stories | 28 Comments

Lean Software and Systems Conference, Atlanta

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Liz

I’ve been invited to speak at the Lean Software and Systems Conference in Atlanta, April 21st to 23rd 2010. BDD, often described as “TDD done well”, is strongly aligned with Lean principles. It’s a pull-based approach to delivering software that … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, conference, kanban, lean | Leave a comment

It’s OK not to call them unit tests

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Liz

There’s been a bit of a twitter storm recently, prompted by Cashto’s blog, Uncle Bob’s response, and Justin’s excellent riposte. So, here’s my response to Cashto’s post. I value unit-level BDD hugely, and it’s fairly intuitive for me. So I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd | 3 Comments

Translating TDD to BDD

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Liz

Prompted by the recent twitter storm, prompted by Uncle Bob, Justin Etheridge and Cashto, here’s some sample language that I use when I’m coaching or thinking about BDD, instead of TDD. I’ve found this language really helps people adopt TDD … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd | 14 Comments

BDD: A Lean Toolkit

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Liz

I’ve been invited to submit a talk to the Lean and Kanban conference in Atlanta, on how Lean principles have changed the way in which I approach TDD (which of course is BDD for me). For those of you on … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, conference | Leave a comment

Mocks, outside-in, swarming features and guesswork

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Liz

The paradox of mocking When we code from the outside-in in BDD, we start with the layer we know – the UI, often graphical – establish collaborators for the UI, establish collaborators for those classes, and work our way inwards … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, kanban, stories | 4 Comments

Testing vs. BDD

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Liz

I’ve found a few places recently where the word “Test” has been used in combination with the words “Behaviour Driven” (with or without the “u”). Normally this makes me wince; the whole origin of BDD was intended to separate the … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, testing | Leave a comment