BDDfy enables the creation of tests that, in addition to verifying that the system works correctly, also results in business-readable, living documentation.

Business-readable means that the tests are described in natural language (e.g. English) that the business can read, understand, and ensure that the correct features and functionality is being built.

Living documentation means that the report results directly from the passing or failing of the tests. It’s not a word document somewhere on a shared drive or SharePoint site that may or may not actually be in sync with what the system actually does.

The Report

Below is an example of what a typical BDDfy HTML report looks like (there is a “metro” inspired report coming in V4). There’s also the ability to output the test report in markdown.

Notice that it’s not code-centric output, but rather business-centric.

Here the two test scenarios are grouped into a story, but they don’t have to be.

The underlying test framework that is used to execute the test doesn’t matter – you could use NUnit, xUnit.net, MSTest, etc.

The Test Code

The tests that produce this report could be configured in BDDfy in a couple of ways. There is a reflective style that uses methods that following a specific naming convention. There is also the fluent style.

The test code to produce this report looks like the below (we are using NUnit in this example).

using NUnit.Framework;
using TestStack.BDDfy;
using TestStack.BDDfy.Core;
using TestStack.BDDfy.Scanners.StepScanners.Fluent;

namespace BDDfyDemo
{
    [TestFixture]
    [Story(AsA = "As a customer",
        IWant = "I want my order total to add up correctly",
        SoThat = "I'm not overcharged for my goods")]
    public class OrderTotalCalculatorTests
    {
        [Test]
        public void MultipleOrderedItemsTotals()
        {
            this.Given(x => GivenIHaveAddedItemsToMyCart())
                .When(x => WhenICheckout())
                .Then(x => ThenTheOrderTotalExcludingTaxShouldBeCorrect())
                .BDDfy<OrderTotalCalculatorTests>();
        }

        [Test]
        public void SalesTaxAdded()
        {
            this.Given(x => GivenIHaveAddedItemsToMyCart())
                .When(x => WhenICheckout())
                .Then(x => ThenTheSalesTaxShouldBeCorrect())
                .BDDfy<OrderTotalCalculatorTests>();
        }

        public void GivenIHaveAddedItemsToMyCart()
        {
            // test code
        }

        public void WhenICheckout()
        {
            // test code
        }

        public void ThenTheOrderTotalExcludingTaxShouldBeCorrect()
        {
            // test code
        }

        public void ThenTheSalesTaxShouldBeCorrect()
        {
            // test code
        }

    }
}

Here there are a couple of NUnit tests defined – the methods with the [Test] attribute applied to them.

Within these test methods the BDDfy fluent style is being used to define the different steps in the test scenarios.

The “given” phase sets up the initial context or state of the thing being tested. The “when” phase acts upon the system to produce some change. The “then” phase is typically where we have assert code, it’s in this phase that the resulting state of the system is checked.

Notice how the individual method names appear in the test report in a nice business-readable way.

There’s a lot more to BDDfy, such as data-parameterised tests and a whole heap of customisation and configuration options. To see more of what BDDfy can do check out my Building the Right Thing in .NET with TestStack Pluralsight course, head on over to the documentation, or check it out on GitHub.

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