When a team of developers sets out to create software solutions for a business, there’s a laundry list of things that can go wrong. Many of these issues stem from miscommunications that can be extremely expensive and time-consuming.
If a development team misunderstands what a client needs, they can spend months working in the wrong direction. For example, the word “account” could mean a general registration account or a line of credit. Even though the client and the development team used the same word, they may have completely different ideas of what it means.
Behavior-driven development (BDD) is an Agile development model that aims to solve communication issues by forcing developers and business leaders to speak in a shared language. Throughout the development process, teams maintain close communication with the client to ensure the most useful product or service is created. BDD ensures that all stakeholders have an active role in the development process so that all of their needs are met.
BDD teams also study user behavior on applications or websites to improve functionality. A client will notify a team of how a customer interacts with their website. It’s then the BDD team’s job to ensure that the website meets the user’s needs in the most efficient way possible.
The roles in a behavior-driven development team can require a bevy of technical and communication skills. It can be hard to find workers with the right mix of people skills, coding ability, and experience to fill your team. A remote talent platform like Upwork can save you time and money by finding the best independent developers with the skills you need.
Behavior-driven development: Origins and philosophy
As mentioned, BDD is a development model that follows the Agile methodology. Agile teams benefit from the cross-communication between not only team members but also stakeholders (clients) within the business. Agile teams generally work on one project at a time and routinely have short meetings to discuss each individual’s progress and sticking points.
The collaborative nature of an Agile team makes it more adept at handling changing project requirements and creating up-to-date solutions. The success of an Agile team depends on the rapport between a Scrum Master, who leads the development team while making sure Agile principles are followed, and a Product Owner, who communicates the client’s interest to the team.
Behavior-driven development is an evolution of another Agile development model called test-driven development (TDD). TDD breaks down an application into functions. Developers then create tests to evaluate the code used for each part of the application.
As opposed to TDD, behavior-driven development seeks to make sure an application reacts properly to a specific action taken by a user. BDD also emphasizes the importance of collaboration and communication between development teams and clients. BDD can be written in a language that both technical and nontechnical workers can understand, while TDD can only be written in a programming language.
Behavior-driven development: Core concepts
When it comes to hiring a BDD team, there are a few core concepts that you should be familiar with. Having a basic understanding of these will help you find quality team members. You can even include these concepts in any hiring tests you create for possible team members.
Ubiquitous language
A ubiquitous language is a language that both the development team and the client agree upon. A shared language makes sure that there are no misunderstandings in the project. When the client tells the BDD team what is needed, the team will ask for examples that clarify the client’s needs. The examples will be communicated in the shared language. Gherkin is a keyword-based language that many teams use.
Given-when-then
When evaluating a client’s needs, BDD teams use a given-when-then model. “Given” describes the situation for a given example. “When” describes what an actor or stakeholder will do in the process. “Then” describes the outcome.
You can also use the terms “goals,” “actors,” and “impacts” to describe this concept, as well. Goals (given) are the missions that the project tries to complete. Actors (when) are developers, users, and anyone else who can affect when they act upon a project. The impact is the effect an actor has.
Value and complexity analysis
Value and complexity analysis is how BDD teams evaluate the importance of every operation in their project. Ideally, teams want to maximize the value they provide to their client while decreasing the complexity needed to complete a project.
Routine meetings help to reevaluate the value and complexity of certain initiatives on a regular cadence. Agile development teams pride themselves on the ability to trim “busy work” from their schedule so that they can focus on initiatives that are high-value, low-cost, and less complex.
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Behavior-driven development: Key benefits
BDD teams operate differently and have different priorities than other types of development teams. There are several key benefits to having a BDD model. Knowing these will help you decide if a BDD model is best for your project.
Keep everyone involved and on the same page
Throughout the entire development process, everyone involved in a BDD team plays a collaborative role. BDD teams have regular short meetings (often daily) in which every member presents their progress from the day before, their plans for the current day, and what they’re having trouble with. A ubiquitous language also allows the client representative to be fully involved in the process.
Deliver functionality that users really need
Every initiative performed by a BDD team is designed to maximize the benefit to the user of an application. Because BDD teams can follow and evaluate the typical behavior of a user, they can identify areas where user experience can be improved and operations can be optimized.
Every action that a BDD team takes is appraised by the value it brings to the client of the software user.
Eliminate wasted time
In an Agile work environment, the work that you don’t do is just as vital as the work that you do. An ultimate goal of a BDD team is efficiency. To increase efficiency, the team must make sure it’s only performing the actions that are absolutely essential to its mission. BDD teams are always evaluating the value and complexity of their operations. If an operation is extremely complex but offers little value, it’s scrapped.
The talent you need to make BDD succeed
A behavior-driven development methodology can deliver highly targeted solutions to greatly benefit your business. A ubiquitous language, routine meeting schedule tailored to the needs of the project, and constant operation evaluations can make BBD teams some of the most effective teams.
While TDD, the predecessor of BDD, focuses on tests that can only be evaluated by developers, BDD teams rely on the rapport between their members and their clients to be successful. BDD teams aim to be completely in sync at all times.
Because the BDD team traces the behavior of multiple users of a website or application, it can see how to create an optimal user experience. By maintaining constant communication with its client, it can also respond to evolving project needs quickly.
In the past, it was impossible to assemble remote Agile teams because one of the principles was for meetings to occur in person. However, with the development of video conferencing software, it’s become increasingly easy to hold face-to-face meetings virtually while physically far apart.
The steadily increasing number of businesses using remote talent platforms like Upwork has reached an all-time high during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies are finding that remote workers are less expensive, happier, and often more productive than their office counterparts.
