The Engineering Room with Dave Farley The Origins Of Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) | Dan Terhorst-North In The Engineering Room Ep. 39
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Sep 14, 2025 
In this enlightening discussion, Dan Terhorst-North, the creator of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), shares his journey in agile software development, particularly at ThoughtWorks. He delves into the origins of BDD, its common misconceptions, and how effective communication boosts collaboration between tech teams and stakeholders. Dan also emphasizes the transformative power of teamwork in agile environments and the importance of feedback in optimizing software practices. His insights highlight the human aspects of technology and fostering innovation.
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Create An Environment That Enables Invention
- ThoughtWorks fostered innovation by giving engineers autonomy, mastery, and purpose, not by accident but by design.
- That environment let teams invent and document practices that became industry standards.
Use BDD To Communicate, Not To Produce Files
- Use BDD primarily as a communication tool to create shared understanding, not as a way to produce plain-text files.
- Focus scenarios on the next most important behaviour and write only the coverage you need.
Don’t Default To Cucumber; Use Your Language
- Avoid starting BDD with Cucumber/Gherkin feature files; prefer writing scenarios in your project's language.
- Only use plain-text feature files when business stakeholders must co-author and read them directly.
