Appreciating the advantages of test management and BDD

For as long as software has existed, teams have been testing it. Automated tests are becoming more important as continuous integration and delivery become more popular. BDD (behavior-driven development) is a current method of software development that evolved from Agile and test-driven development.

Most teams and organizations may benefit from test management and test case management tools and BDD, but BDD adoption is much more than just managing automated or manual tests.

Management of tests

It’s crucial to define a few concepts that are widely used.

A test is an activity that provides information regarding a system’s performance.

Administration: Conducting, supervising, or coordinating a certain action

Management of tests: Managing a set of tests to evaluate and report on different elements of a system’s quality.

As you can see from these definitions, “test management” is a pretty broad phrase. Its goal is to synthesize useful information about a system’s suitability for its intended use. The data for that synthesis comes from a variety of test domains (functional, load, penetration, and so on), which are created by various instruments and provide findings in various forms at varied frequencies.

BDD automation’s main purpose is to help the development team as they write production code. From a test management standpoint, however, BDD automation may be deemed acceptance tests after the production code is created. As a result, the findings of the BDD automation should be included in reports that evaluate the system’s quality.

When contrasting the two

The basic purpose of test management is to give useful, actionable information about the system’s quality. BDD has loftier (but more limited) goals: it wants to eliminate misunderstandings and rework by demanding collaborative discovery and formulation BEFORE any implementation code is created.

Furthermore, because the automation of the business-readable specification is inextricably linked to the implementation design, it should be handled by the delivery team rather than a distinct automation team.

As a result, BDD has a larger influence on the team or organization. It necessitates early and regular cooperation where none previously existed, as well as the development team’s complete engagement in automation. Test management is less directive, and it usually necessitates departmental rather than organizational change.

Last Thoughts

Although both test management (and test management tools) and BDD are beneficial, they are not the same thing – or even closely related.

Different aims and methods of collaboration across the organization are required for test management and BDD. BDD adoption adds to the corpus of texts that offer knowledge about the system, but that is not its main aim. It’s a common misconception that BDD is a test activity.