Writing Great Specifications: Using Specification By Example and Gherkin

Summary

Writing Great Specifications is an example-rich tutorial that teaches you how to write good Gherkin specification documents that take advantage of the benefits of specification by example. Foreword written by Gojko Adzic.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the Technology

The clearest way to communicate a software specification is to provide examples of how it should work. Turning these story-based descriptions into a well-organized dev plan is another matter. Gherkin is a human-friendly, jargon-free language for documenting a suite of examples as an executable specification. It fosters efficient collaboration between business and dev teams, and it's an excellent foundation for the specification by example (SBE) process.

About the Book

Writing Great Specifications teaches you how to capture executable software designs in Gherkin following the SBE method. Written for both developers and non-technical team members, this practical book starts with collecting individual feature stories and organizing them into a full, testable spec. You'll learn to choose the best scenarios, write them in a way that anyone can understand, and ensure they can be easily updated by anyone.management.

What's Inside

• Reading and writing Gherkin
• Designing story-based test cases
• Team Collaboration
• Managing a suite of Gherkin documents

About the Reader

Primarily written for developers and architects, this book is accessible to any member of a software design team.

About the Author

Kamil Nicieja is a seasoned engineer, architect, and project manager with deep expertise in Gherkin and SBE.

Table of contents

1. Introduction to specification by example and Gherkin

PART 1 - WRITING EXECUTABLE SPECIFICATIONS WITH EXAMPLES

2. The specification layer and the automation layer
3. Mastering the Given-When-Then template
4. The basics of scenario outlines
5. Choosing examples for scenario outlines
6. The life cycle of executable specifications
7. Living documentation

PART 2 - MANAGING SPECIFICATION SUITES

8. Organizing scenarios into a specification suite
9. Refactoring features into abilities and business needs
10. Building a domain-driven specification suite
11. Managing large projects with bounded contexts