Applying BDD concepts to process management initiatives

1. Behavior Driven Process
Management
Itamar Goldminz
Director – Knowledge, Planning and Improvement - Opower

2. Intro
Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) was invented by Dan North (circa 2003) in
order to answer some key questions / challenges with implementing Test Driven
Development (TDD)
Can we apply the same guidelines for ensuring the right behaviors in software
systems to process (human systems)?
Behavior-Driven Process Management (BDPM)

3. Effective Design and Clean Code
Dan’s definition:
● ...has tangible stakeholder value
● ...is delivered on time, incrementally
● ...is easy to deploy and manage
● ...is robust in production
● ...is easy to understand and communicate

4. Effective Process
Dan’s definition:
● ...has tangible stakeholder value
● ...is delivered on time, incrementally
● ...is easy to deploy and manage
● ...is robust in production
● ...is easy to understand and communicate
All apply to “effective process” as well.

5. TDD challenges Process challenges
● Where to start in the process
● What to test and what not to test
● How much to test in one go
● What to call the tests
● How to understand why a test fails
● Where to start in the process
● Where to introduce process
● How much process in one go
● What to call the process
● How to understand why a process
fails

6. TDD challenges Process challenges
● Where to start in the process
● What to test and what not to test
● How much to test in one go
● What to call the tests
● How to understand why a test fails
● Where to start in the process
● Where to introduce process
● How much process in one go
● What to call the process
● How to understand why a process
fails

7. How BDD helps
● Where to start: business value: What’s the next most important thing the
system doesn’t do?
● What to call your test is easy – it’s a sentence describing the next behavior
in which you are interested
● How much to test becomes moot – you can only describe so much behavior
in a single sentence
● How to understand why a test fails:
○ You introduced a “bug” - changed the system in a way that caused the
wrong behavior;
○ The behavior moved
○ The test is no longer necessary

8. How BDPM helps
● Where to start: business value: What’s the next most important thing the
system doesn’t do?
● What to call your process piece is easy – it’s a sentence describing the next
behavior in which you are interested
● How to chunk your process becomes moot – you can only describe so much
behavior in a single sentence
● How to understand why a process fails:
○ You introduced a “bug” - changed the system in a way that caused the
wrong behavior;
○ The behavior moved (somebody else is doing it)
○ The process is no longer necessary

9. BDPM Mechanics
● Describe process pieces as stories:
○ As a... - Who (which business or project role) is the driver or primary
stakeholder of the story (the actor who derives business benefit from the
story)
○ I can… - Which effect the stakeholder wants the story to have
○ So that… - What business value the stakeholder will derive from this
effect

10. BDPM Mechanics
● A story’s behavior is simply its acceptance criteria – if the system fulfills all
the acceptance criteria, it’s behaving correctly:
○ Given … - The initial condition that is assumed to be true at the
beginning of the scenario. This may consist of a single clause, or
several.
○ When… - Which event triggers the start of the scenario.
○ Then… - The expected outcome, in one or more clauses.