Getting Started with Behavior Driven Development
What is SpecFlow and its benefits? These are the main questions this article answers.
What is SpecFlow?
SpecFlow is the #1 .NET open-source framework for Behavior Driven Development, Acceptance Test Driven Development and Specification by Example. With over 10 million downloads on NuGet, SpecFlow is trusted by teams around the world.
How does SpecFlow support BDD?
SpecFlow supports BDD by providing a mechanism to turn specifications into executable code. This code can then be used to create automated tests that run against the application to verify whether it actually exhibits the behavior described in your specifications.
To put it in BDD and SpecFlow terms, SpecFlow turns the Gherkin Given / When / Then syntax scenarios in feature files into executable code methods known as step definitions.
Transforming these steps, expressed in natural, readable language, into executable code, is where SpecFlow’s responsibility of ends. To further implement your test automation so that it actually communicates with your application under test, you will need to add other tools to your test automation solution.
Some tools that are often used in combination with SpecFlow to form a test automation framework are:
- A unit testing framework such as NUnit, MSTest or xUnit.NET. This unit testing framework typically performs three tasks:
– Act as a test runner that executes the scenarios one by one, or in parallel.
– Provide an assertion library that can be used to compare expected outcomes that are codified by the creator of the test automation with actual outcomes observed in the application under test.
– Provide basic test results in reports, mostly in a form that can be picked up by a test orchestration or Continuous Integration tool like Azure DevOps, Jenkins, TeamCity or similar. - A library that interacts with browsers and browser applications. The most common example of these tools is the Selenium WebDriver library.
- A library that interacts with APIs or web services, for example RestSharp.
- A library that generates human-readable reports, often in HTML format. Two popular examples of this category of tools are Allure and ExtentReports.
Get started with BDD & the SpecFlow ecosystem
SpecFlow provides a whole ecosystem of tools to use BDD on Azure DevOps and the Microsoft .NET platform. Besides SpecFlow and SpecFlow+Runner, there is also a SpecFlow Visual Studio Extension that provides a Gherkin editor and build integration.
SpecMap and SpecFlow+LivingDoc are Azure DevOps extensions that support the team in the overall BDD process with managing their backlog using story maps and accessing their living documentation.
SpecFlow+ LivingDoc is also available as a set of plugins and tools for SpecFlow to generate local or self-hosted documentation out of your Gherkin feature files, which can be easily shared with your team and stakeholders without the need for Visual Studio or Azure DevOps.
💡 Demo: Try out our SpecFlow+ LivingDoc Generator Demo which is hosted on GitHub Pages.
To utilize SpecFlow with its powerful ecosystem, we recommend checking out the following extensions and getting started information.
- The comprehensive getting started & installation guide for SpecFlow
- SpecFlow+ Runner: A dedicated test runner for SpecFlow and integrates directly with Visual Studio.
- SpecFlow+ LivingDoc: An/Azure DevOps (VSTS) extension that takes your Gherkin feature files and renders them in an easily readable format with syntax highlighting.
- SpecFlow+ LivingDoc Generator: A set of plugins and tools for SpecFlow to generate local or self-hosted documentation out of your Gherkin feature files, which can be easily shared with your team and stakeholders without the need for Visual Studio or Azure DevOps.
- SpecMap: An Azure DevOps (VSTS) extension for story mapping.
What is SpecFlow?
SpecFlow is the #1 .NET open source framework for Behavior Driven Development, Acceptance Test Driven Development and Specification by Example. With over 10 million downloads on NuGet, SpecFlow is trusted by teams around the world.
In SpecFlow, specifications are written in plain, simple language which is defined by the Gherkin Syntax (Given-When-Then).
How does SpecFlow support BDD?
SpecFlow supports BDD by providing a mechanism to turn specifications into executable code. This code can then be used to create automated tests that run against the application to verify whether it actually exhibits the behavior described in your specifications.
To put it in BDD and SpecFlow terms, SpecFlow turns the Gherkin Given / When / Then syntax scenarios in feature files into executable code methods known as step definitions.
Transforming these steps, expressed in natural, readable language, into executable code, is where SpecFlow’s responsibility of ends. To further implement your test automation so that it actually communicates with your application under test, you will need to add other tools to your test automation solution.
Some tools that are often used in combination with SpecFlow to form a test automation framework are:
- A unit testing framework such as NUnit, MSTest or xUnit.NET. This unit testing framework typically performs three tasks:
– Act as a test runner that executes the scenarios one by one, or in parallel.
– Provide an assertion library that can be used to compare expected outcomes that are codified by the creator of the test automation with actual outcomes observed in the application under test.
– Provide basic test results in reports, mostly in a form that can be picked up by a test orchestration or Continuous Integration tool like Azure DevOps, Jenkins, TeamCity or similar. - A library that interacts with browsers and browser applications. The most common example of these tools is the Selenium WebDriver library.
- A library that interacts with APIs or web services, for example RestSharp.
- A library that generates human-readable reports, often in HTML format. Two popular examples of this category of tools are Allure and ExtentReports.
Get started with BDD & the SpecFlow ecosystem
SpecFlow provides a whole ecosystem of tools to use BDD on Azure DevOps and the Microsoft .NET platform. Besides SpecFlow and SpecFlow+Runner, there is also a SpecFlow Visual Studio Extension that provides a Gherkin editor and build integration. SpecMap and SpecFlow+LivingDoc are Azure DevOps extensions that support the team in the overall BDD process with managing their backlog using story maps and accessing their living documentation.
To utilize SpecFlow with its powerful ecosystem, we recommend checking out the following extensions and getting started information.
- The comprehensive getting started & installation guide for SpecFlow
- SpecFlow+ Runner: A dedicated test runner for SpecFlow and integrates directly with Visual Studio.
- SpecFlow+ LivingDoc: An/Azure DevOps (VSTS) extension that takes your Gherkin feature files and renders them in an easily readable format with syntax highlighting.
- SpecFlow+ LivingDoc Generator: A set of plugins and tools for SpecFlow to generate local or self-hosted documentation out of your Gherkin feature files, which can be easily shared with your team and stakeholders without the need for Visual Studio or Azure DevOps.
- SpecMap: An Azure DevOps (VSTS) extension for story mapping.