Stop Using Gherkin as Scripting Language

It is common and widespread across QA teams, but its utility is dubious, and far from the main objective.

David Rodenas PhD

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A Gherkin About to Write an Example

Gherkin as scripting language

Before begin, I want to put things clear. Currently, I have seen two uses for Gherkin: BDD and QA-Scripting.

The latter is when we use Gherkin with intention to write a script, it shows what the user will do when interacting with the user interface. You can see a quick example here:

In this example, each step represent an action that the user does, or what he expects to see. You can follow it step by step and reproduce it in the application. You go to the login page. You should see the login form. It should have the username and password inputs, and the sign-in button. Then you click on the username input. And so on. It describes how you will test it.

The advantage is that it serves as a guide for making a test. And you can execute both by hand and by machine. Before implementing the test…

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David Rodenas PhD
David Rodenas PhD

Written by David Rodenas PhD

Passionate software engineer & storyteller. Sharing knowledge to advance our skills. Join me on a journey of discovery in the world of software engineering.