Diagnosis and Treatment of Cucumber Diseases

Please note this is a 90 minute Deep Dive, with a break during the session.

The implementation of steps in Cucumber can be considered as declarative or imperative style. The description of test scenarios in Gherkin is a declarative approach to writing tests, where the tests are described in natural language. The actual implementation of steps in a programming language is done in an imperative style and can be considered as procedural programming, as the steps are executed in a specific order to achieve the desired test results. However, it also allows for a higher level of abstraction through the use of Gherkin, which makes it not exactly comparable to traditional procedural approaches.

Kent Beck and Martin Fowler have coined the term “code smell” to explain certain patterns in the source code that indicate potential problems or opportunities for improvement. In the context of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) tools such as Cucumber, SpecFlow, and Reqnroll, unique code smells, which we will refer to as ‘cucumber diseases,’ can arise due to the distinct nature of writing and maintaining tests in a BDD framework.

In this workshop, we’ll:

• diagnose these cucumber diseases by examining their symptoms and understanding their impact
• explore treatments and
• focus on refactoring techniques that can address these issues.

Participants will engage in hands-on prepared coding exercises in either Cucumber or Reqnroll, applying these treatments to a prepared test suite. Addressing these ‘cucumber diseases’ involves applying best practices such as maintaining clear and concise scenarios, reusing step definitions appropriately, ensuring steps are user-focused, and fostering consistent terminology. By recognizing and addressing these BDD-specific code smells, teams can improve the effectiveness and maintainability of their BDD test suites, leading to better software quality and more efficient development processes.

Requirements

• Laptop
• GitHub account
• Browser or IDE/Editor (e.g., VS Code, IntelliJ IDEA) with Git integration and your preferred BDD tool
• Experience either with Java and Cucumber, or C# and Reqnroll or SpecFlow