Dear BDD Addicts,

It has been some time since I wrote down these words last time. Believe me, I am very creative in making excuses, but I’m not sure if it would be for anyone’s benefit. So let’s just continue where we stoppedwith the news on BDD, Cucumber, SpecFlow, Reqnroll, agile testing and test automation…

But wait a second, BDD, Cucumber, SpecFlow, automation: all good, but what is Reqnroll? And what does it do on that list?

I’m glad you have asked. Because this is exactly what is happening to me nowadays, so this issue is somewhat dedicated to this topic. I started the year with a big decision to give up to raise SpecFlow from the half-dead state that it has been for a while now. I forked the project and gave it a new birth with a new name: Reqnroll.

The articles this month are related to this change (don’t worry, the next one will be back to the usual content), but hopefully they will inspire non-SpecFlow/.NET/BDD users as well.

So let’s see the monthly dose…

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[Reqnroll] An attempt to reboot SpecFlow

In the last 6 months I have puzzled quite much over what will happen to SpecFlow and how I can help. Every decision is hard, but the one to “fork and retry” was especially tough.

But it has been done. Please, welcome Reqnroll!

From SpecFlow to Reqnroll: Why and How (Gaspar Nagy)

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[Cucumber] No funeral!

Maybe I should have started the newsletter with Cucumber, because all the things that happened (or rather “are happening”) to Cucumber are important to understand the Reqnroll story as well.

Almost exactly a year ago we received the shocking news from Matt Wynne that the Cucumber team had been fired. While this was a very sad personal story, it has also raised interesting questions about the future of Cucumber or in general, the future of BDD, or at least Given-When-Then based BDD as well. Was there a problem with Cucumber? Were there problems with SmartBear dealing with Cucumber? Or has just this been maybe the result of changing focus and portfolio cleanup (and actually there has not been any problem really)?

We will not get quick answers to these questions, but hopefully the legal chapter of the SmartBear disjoining can be closed and a time of a new building period can begin.

I haven’t found many posts analyzing the situation (ignoring the childish “I’m happy you have lost your green ball, because I hate green balls anyway” style comments), but the summary by Daniel Delimata is a good independent view.

Is Cucumber dying? Not so fast with this funeral! (Daniel Delimata)

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[Reqnroll] SpecFlow to Reqnroll migration reports

During the Reqnroll preparation period, I have “migrated” some of my projects from SpecFlow to see how easy or hard it is for the users to switch over. During that period a migration guide and even a special “SpecFlow compatibility” package has been created that can be seen as a set of training wheels to help you to try out Reqnroll with minimal changes.

We are still at an early stage but  the migration seems to be manageable. I hope to read more reports from people about their migration experience and thanks to Max Hamulyák for being a pioneer in that.

Specflow has died; long live Reqnroll! (Max Hamulyák)