PhD Defence - John Carter
Date and Time
Location
MacKinnon Building, Room 318
Details
Title: BHive: Behaviour-Driven Development Meets B-Method
Abstract:
Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) is an “outside-in” approach to software development built upon semi-formal mediums for specifying the behavior of a system as it would be observed externally. Through the representation of a system as a collection of user stories and scenarios using BDD's notation, practitioners automate acceptance tests using examples of desired behavior for the envisioned system. A formal model created in concert with BDD tests would provide valuable insight into test validity and enhance the visibility of the problem domain. This work called Bhive builds upon the formal underpinnings of BDD scenarios by mapping their “Given,” “When,” and “Then” statements to “Precondition,” “Command,” and “Postcondition” constructs as introduced by Floyd-Hoare logic. We posit that this mapping allows for a B-Method representation to be created and that such a model is useful for exploring system behavior and exposing gaps in requirements and test plans. We also outline extensions to BDD tooling required for the described integration and present benefits of the BHive approach to integrating formalism within a BDD project.
Chair: Dr. Fangju Wang
Advisor: Dr. William Gardner
Advisory Committee Member: Dr. Blair Nonnecke
Non-Advisory Committee Member: Dr. Andrew Hamilton-Wright
External Examiner: Dr. William Farmer (McMaster University)