Behavior Driven Development: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is a widely adopted agile methodology for software development that emphasizes the behavior of an application as a series of test cases, using the keywords, which include “Given,” “When,” and “Then.” It involves writing requirements in a structured and testable format that can be evaluated to ensure compliance with the expected behavior. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted to examine the impact of using BDD on software development process yet rare work is observed to synthesize these studies and identify areas for future exploration. This study presents a review of the state-of-the-art BDD by synthesizing the recent advancements in its uses and applications. It aims to systematically investigate the impact of BDD on software development process as well as on product quality by aiding to bridge the communication gap between the stakeholders. The results reveal that BDD is an effective technique to clarify requirements during the software development process as it helps minimizing the intrinsic ambiguities. This work proposes a taxonomy based on the role and applications of BDD in various contexts. It suggests a framework for applying BDD in software development and defines a workflow for its application in software development. Finally, this work highlights some pertinent future directions for the use of BDD in software development.

Keywords

• Behavior-driven development
• software testing
• agile methodology
• ubiquitous language
• automation testing
• test driven development