BDD with SpecFlow - Features Scenarios Steps and Contexts

SpecFlow is a tool that bridges the gap between business-level behavior specification and the technical implementations of automated testing. SpecFlow is an acceptance criteria definition and testing tool that makes it easier to integrate Behavior Driven Specifications into software projects earlier, in a shift-left fashion.

Business value is defined and modeled as Business Features. Those features are built from more granular components, often called User Stories.  The Feature and User Stories contain sets of Acceptance Criteria that represent the target state for the Feature.

The Feature is the top-level construct in Specflow/BDD. Gherkin Business Features are made up of a set of Scenarios.   Each Scenario represents one or more acceptance criteria.  Each SCenario is validated as a single automated unit test or a parameter-driven unit test with a list of parameter sets.  One or more features and their associated scenarios define the criteria needed to verify that some business functionality implements the business behavior.

Example Walkthrough

This Feature contains three Scenarios. The Feature is described in a SpecFlow feature file.  The Feature and the Scenarios are materialized into Unit Tests via SpecFlow's code-behind generated Feature .cs file.  Scenarios results are verified every time the Unit test set passes a test run.

Features  and Scenarios

Features represent some business outcome or value stream.  Scenarios act as the acceptance criteria for the implementation of that business outcome. Features should contain as many Scenarios as required to describe the desired business behavior.  This includes positive and negative outcomes.  Some teams will break the Functional Behavior and the Non-Functional Behavior into separate features the the end result is still that some Features contain enough Scenarios to define the behavior in enough detail to agree that the requirements have been met if the Scenario (BDD Tests) passes.

SpecFlow implements Features via Gherkin Syntax Feature Files.  SpecFlow generates code-behind .cs files that provide Unit Test Scaffolding that set up each individual Scenario as its own Unit test.  Features contain scenarios.  Feature Files result in Unit Tests sets one for each Scenario in the Feature.

A Scenario in a Feature is written something like
Scenario: Example - Search with Bing
	Given I search the internet using site "bing"
	When I use the term "facebook"
	Then There should be at least 1 trademark holder site link "facebook.com"

Scenarios and Steps

Scenarios are made up of multiple steps.  SpecFlow, and Cucumber, use Gherkin Given When Then Syntax for this specification.  This is similar to other Arrange, Action, Assert frameworks.  Developers implement the steps with the appropriate assertions around the acceptance criteria. Each Given When Then clause is implemented as an atomic step. Steps are global functions essentially visible to any test that wishes to use them.  Steps are grouped in step definition files whose organization does not impact how steps can be used.  Scenario (Test) can mix and match previously created steps with new steps created just for this scenario.

Code generated Scenario Unit Test in the Feature File call each test Scenario step in turn in the order specified by the Gherkin Scenario. SpecFlow, and Cucumber, implement Steps as standalone Functions. Steps are stateless.  Steps operate against input parameters and context. They store the state in the context to be possibly used by later steps. 

Scenario Steps and Contexts

Steps are grouped in Step Definition Files.   Each step is an independent function that is globally visible across all BDD tests.  Steps can be reused across an unlimited number of scenarios. Step Definitions are instantiated for each individual test making the individual Step Functions visible inside that test.   If a Scenario contains steps from multiple Step Definition Files then all of the relevant Step Definition Files are instantiated to bring the Steps into context.

Scenario Steps operate, at run time, within a Scenario Context or scope.  The scope could contain data like the results of a previous step, intermediate values, calculated values, security credentials, configuration information, or other data. The Steps receive or access that context via invocation parameters or dependency injected scope objects.  SpecFlow creates context objects that are referenced in Step Definition File constructors and inject those same instantiated objects across all the Step Definition Files that contain Steps referenced in a Scenario.  This means the same context is available to Scenario Steps no matter what Step Definition File they are implemented in as long as they have the same data type injected via the Step Definition Constructor.

This sample from https://github.com/freemansoft/SimpleWebUITestEnvironment shows a Step Definition File/Class that accepts two context objects via Constructor Injection.

    private ScenarioContext _scenarioContext;
        private ISearchEndpoint _endpointConfig;

        public BDDDrivenSearchEnginesStepDefinitions(
            ScenarioContext scenarioContext, 
            BingSearchEndpoint endpointConfig)
        {
            _scenarioContext = scenarioContext;
            _endpointConfig = endpointConfig;
        }

Context design and standardization is an ongoing concern and a source of refactoring work as BDD testing projects grow and mature.

Step Visibility

Step Definitions are global by default.  All of the Step Definitions in all of the Step Definition Files in a project can be used in any of the Scenarios.  There are some design considerations in that not all Steps may accept or expect context state in the same form or location.  Step re-use considerations can drive refactoring efforts across BDD testing projects.  

In some cases, it is better to assume that Steps are global but are normally used in pools of steps for certain types of scenario interactions.  In this case, the Step Definition Files may contain related Steps more than the Steps for a specific Scenario.

Step Visibility and reusability design is an ongoing concern in large BDD projects.

Video

Execution

The IDE or CI/CD process run tests using the standard test runner.  The code-behind .cs file for Feature is recognized as a Unit Test file for the runner (NUnit/Xunit) that you are using.  Each Scenario is modeled as its own test. The standard test runner invokes the unit tests via the code-behind. The feature code-behind file loads all the step definition files bringing them into the scope and then runs each scenario in turn. Each scenario is actually a unit test (from the runner's point of view).  Each scenario is just made up of calls to the appropriate given/when/then steps. Test failures are bubbled up in the usual fashion for that test library.



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