Having a good example-driven conversation can be messy. Humans scribble on whiteboards, rip up index cards, and stick things to the wall. Automating examples brings huge benefits, but forcing them into linear Gherkin doesn't always feel natural. We'll explore some more natural visual formats for examples, and how they can practically be used to drive tests.

1. DoodleDriven
Development
CiaranMcNulty@Cukenfest2019

2. IlikeDraw-ers
@ruby_gem @jennyjmar @mattwynne

3. Discovery
↓!
Formulation
↓ !
Automation

4. Conversations
↓!
Gherkin/G-W-T
↓ !
Cucumber

5. Drawings
↓ !
?
↓ !
?

6. !
Discoveringwhat's
important

8. Scenario: Present for full amount
Given I have a pending transaction for £100
When a presentment for £100 is received
Then I should have a completed transaction for £100
Scenario: Present for less than full amount
Given I have a pending transaction for £100
When a presentment for £50 is received
Then I should have a completed transaction for £50
And I should have a pending transaction for £50

11. 1picture=1000words
Joel Goodman/M.E.N.

12. Effectivediscoverywithdrawings
· Create the conditions where it can happen
· Pick the right formats
· Don't force it

13. !
Formulating
diagrams

14. Gherkinisgreat:
1. Looks like the conversation
2. Trackable in VCS
3. Parseable by machines

15. Potentialformats
· HTML+SVG+CSS
· Mermaid.js
· Asciio
· Asciitosvg
· GraphViz

16. Graphviz
digraph {
"No transactions" -> "Pending £100" [label="£100 Authorisation"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £110" [label="£110 Presentment"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £50 n Pending £50" [label="£50 Presentment"];
"Completed £50 n Pending £50" -> "Completed £50 n Completed £50" [label="£50 Presentment"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £100" [label="£100 Presentment"];
"Completed £100" -> "Completed £100 n Completed £100" [label="£100 Presentment"];
}

20. Contextualise

21. Effectiveformulation
· Find a format that is 'close enough'
· Try and forget the tools during discovery
· Sync based on mtime

22. Drawings
↓!
Appropriateformats
↓ !
?

23. !
Automating
diagrams

24. digraph {
"No transactions" -> "Pending £100" [label="£100 Authorisation"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £110" [label="£110 Presentment"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £50 n Pending £50" [label="£50 Presentment"];
"Completed £50 n Pending £50" -> "Completed £50 n Completed £50" [label="£50 Presentment"];
"Pending £100" -> "Completed £100" [label="£100 Presentment"];
"Completed £100" -> "Completed £100 n Completed £100" [label="£100 Presentment"];
}

25. foreach (file('/presentment.dot') as $line) {
if (!preg_match('/->/', $line)) {
continue;
}
$pattern = '/"(?<start>.*)".*->.*"(?<end>.*)".*label="(?<transition>.*?)"/';
if (!preg_match($pattern, $line, $matches)) {
throw new Exception ("Cannot parse line:n$line");
}
$this->setUp($matches['start']);
$this->applyEvent($matches['end']);
$this->assertEndState($matches['transition']);
}

26. Effectiveautomation
· Cheat the format
· Do the easiest thing that works
· Write brittle tests

27. !
Domoredrawing!
Findmachineformats!
Writescrappytests

28. Onemorething:
Exploratorytesting

30. CiaranMcNulty
· ciaran@crania.uk
· @BDDLondon