In requirements elicitation and elaboration, we have identified the related concepts of user stories and TDD examples.

• Requirements Elicitation: User Stories
• Requirements Elaboration: TDD Examples

The general ideas underlying this approach are shared by a set of methodologies known by several different terms.

• Specification By Example
  • Note: the focus on examples as the "single source of truth".
  • Common language understood by:
    • Customers and other stakeholders
    • Business analysts
    • Software developers
  • See also | Martin Fowler's remarks on Specification by Example

• Behaviour-Driven Development
  • TDD Examples == Acceptance Criteria == Scenarios

• Acceptance Test-Driven Development
  • Note: the structured template layout for acceptance criteria.

• StoryTest-Driven Development
  • Acceptance test examples are further formalized into StoryTests.
  • Programmers implement fixtures which automate acceptance tests.
  • The Fit framework allows this approach to acceptance testing to be highly automated.
    • Fit for Developing Software: A Framework for Integrated Tests

Critique

• Specification by example does not satisfy the requirements for a complete and correct system specification.
  • Only a small subset of input-output mappings are defined.
  • Examples are not mathematically defined and therefore not subject to mathematical proof techniques.

Iteration 4 Specification-By-Example

• Refine TDD examples into human testable concrete form, following the Given-When-Then patterns.
• Create test demos for 5 of your TDD examples.
  • One "before" screenshot satisfying the "Given" condition.
  • A description of the specific user action satisfying the "When" condition.
  • One "after" screenshot satisfying the "Then" condition.

• Example: listening comprehension mode scenarios/TDD examples.

• Scenario 1
  • Given: that listening comprehension mode is enabled
  • When: the user initiates a new puzzle
  • Then: the user sees a standard Sudoku grid with some prefilled cells showing digits in the range 1..9 and all other cells empty

• Scenario 2
  • Given: that the user is filling in the grid in listening comprehension mode,
    • and that the grid includes a cell with the prefilled digit 4
    • and that word pair 4 is (green, vert)
  • When: the user presses the prefilled cell having the digit 4
  • Then: the user hears the word "vert" read out and pronounced in French.

• Scenario 3
  • Given: that the user is filling in the grid in listening comprehension mode,
    • and that the grid includes a cell with the prefilled digit 4
    • and that word pair 4 is (green, vert)
  • When: the user selects a non-prefilled cell to enter the word "green"
  • Then: the word "green" appears in the list of words that may be selected, but not in the fourth position

• Scenario 4
  • Given: that the user is filling in the grid in listening comprehension mode,
  • When: the users presses a cell and hears the word "vert"
  • Then: the user does not see the word "vert" anywhere on the game grid.