A common exercise in acceptance test driven development is write acceptance for the problem of scoring a bowling game. You may have seen other examples of acceptance tests. Here’s a different version based on some of the guidelines listed in my book. These examples are shown as Word-style tables. They can be converted into tables compatible with the syntax of your acceptance test framework. Continue reading Another Way to Look at the Bowling Acceptance Tests →

I’ve been teaching Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) for many years. At the start of every course, I ask the attendees for issues they have with their development processes. After they have experienced the ATDD process, including creation of acceptance tests, I review their issues to see whether they feel that ATDD will help, hurt, or be neutral in respect to those issues. Continue reading ATDD Solves Development Issues →

I’ve had numerous questions on how to automate testing batch programs. In some places these are also termed host programs, since the batch runs on a mainframe host. Let’s take a look at an example on how to do this.

Continue reading Automating Tests for Batch Applications →

You have some service or database call. You need that call to be repeatable. Sometimes a record and playback is sufficient. You make the call, record what it returns, and play that back every subsequent time. Continue reading Programmable Mocks →

Summary

Tables are a desirable way to specify values in a Cucumber Given/When/Then step. Here’s an example of a table:

Given Customer is:
| Id  | Name | Street       | Zip Code |
| 123 | John | 1 Apple Lane | 27701    |

Continue reading Using Tables in Cucumber →

Acceptance tests start with communication, not automation.

— Ken Pugh (@kpugh) January 9, 2015

There is often some confusion between Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) and Test-Driven Development (TDD).   Here’s a short description of their similarities, their differences, and their relationship.    Continue reading Acceptance Test-Driven Development and Test-Driven Development – How They Are the Same and How They Are Different →