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Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) Workshop
- Categories:
- Software and DevOps Product Discovery and Design
- Level:
- Expert
- Code:
- QABDDWS
- Exam:
- Not Applicable
Overview
This workshop provides a practical introduction to Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) and how it helps delivery teams build shared understanding before software is developed. Learners will explore how to move from business goals and user stories to acceptance criteria, concrete examples, Gherkin scenarios, and executable specifications.
The workshop focuses on BDD as a collaboration practice, not just a testing technique. Learners will work through practical exercises covering story mapping, specification by example, Gherkin syntax, Cucumber implementation, living documentation, and traceability. Please note, This workshop attempts to help you create testable specifications that can be tied to MVPs. This is not a requirements management workshop.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used to support structured prompting, scenario generation, and documentation review. The focus is on using AI to improve quality, clarity, and consistency while keeping human judgement central.
Prerequisites
No prior BDD experience is required.
Learners should have an interest in improving requirements, collaboration, software quality, or agile delivery. Familiarity with user stories, testing, software development, or agile ways of working would be useful but is not essential.
Learners who want to complete the optional coding elements should have basic familiarity with JavaScript or be comfortable following guided technical demonstrations.
Target audience
This workshop is designed for people involved in defining, building, testing, or delivering software and digital products.
It is suitable for:
- Business analysts
- Product owners
- Developers
- Testers and quality engineers
- Scrum masters
- Delivery leads
- Agile teams looking to improve requirements, collaboration, and test coverage
What's included
Select your preferred way to learn:
What is Virtual?
Live, instructor-led training delivered online
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1 Day instructor led course
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Dates
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Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Explain how BDD improves collaboration and shared understanding across delivery teams
- Write clearer user stories using quality checks such as SMART and INVEST
- Use story mapping to structure user journeys and prioritise delivery work
- Create acceptance criteria and examples that support testable requirements
- Write Gherkin scenarios using clear Given, When, and Then syntax
- Compare imperative and declarative scenario styles
- Use AI-assisted prompts to support scenario creation, refinement, and documentation
Course outline
Behaviour Driven Development foundations
- The purpose of BDD
- Common collaboration gaps in software delivery
- How BDD supports shared understanding
- The relationship between requirements, examples, tests, and working software
- Why BDD is a communication practice as well as a technical practice
Test coverage and quality
- How test data supports better coverage
- Risks of test-after approaches
- Benefits of test-before thinking
- How examples help reveal assumptions and edge cases
- Using BDD to improve confidence in delivered software
User stories
- Writing effective user stories
- Connecting user stories to business goals
- Using INVEST to review story quality
- Sizing and refining stories
- Identifying weak or incomplete stories
Story mapping
- Building a story map from a user journey
- Identifying activities, tasks, and supporting stories
- Prioritising stories across a workflow
- Using story mapping to support planning and alignment
- Applying AI-assisted prompts to improve story maps
Acceptance criteria
- The role of acceptance criteria
- Using SMART to improve clarity and testability
- Turning acceptance criteria into examples
- Identifying gaps, ambiguity, and missing rules
- Connecting acceptance criteria to BDD scenarios
Shared understanding and specification by example
- The Three Amigos approach
- Using examples to align business, development, and testing roles
- Facilitating conversations before code is written
- Challenging assumptions through concrete examples
- Using AI-assisted prompts to review and strengthen examples
Living documentation and traceability
- The purpose of living documentation
- How feature files document expected behaviour
- Linking scenarios to user stories and business goals
- Keeping documentation aligned with working software
- Avoiding documentation that has no clear audience or value
Gherkin syntax and structure
- Feature and scenario structure
- Given, When, and Then syntax
- Using And and But effectively
- Background sections, data tables, and examples tables
- Rules of thumb for clear Gherkin writing
- Using AI-assisted prompts to generate and refine Gherkin scenarios
Scenario writing styles
- Imperative scenario writing
- Declarative scenario writing
- Choosing the right level of detail
- Improving readability and maintainability
- Rewriting scenarios to make intent clearer
Cucumber implementation
- Turning Gherkin into executable specifications
- Initialising Cucumber
- Generating and reviewing step definitions
- Connecting feature files to implementation code
- Demonstrating the BDD lifecycle from feature file to passing test
- Using AI assistance to support implementation while maintaining human review
Exams and assessments
There is no formal exam or certification associated with this course.
Hands-on learning
This workshop includes practical activities throughout. Learners will write and review user stories, build story maps, create acceptance criteria, develop examples, and write Gherkin scenarios.
Hands-on activities include:
- Story writing and review exercises
- AI-assisted story mapping
- Specification by example practice
- Gherkin scenario writing with and without AI assistance
- Scenario refinement and comparison exercises
- Cucumber demonstrations
- The String Calculator Kata
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