BDD Acceptance Criteria Template (Gherkin)

Acceptance Criteria (BDD): [Feature name]

Acceptance criteria for one feature, written as Gherkin feature files with Given/When/Then scenarios and traced to the user stories they accept. The syntax follows the Gherkin reference published by the Cucumber project (cucumber.io). Scenarios written this way can be read by the business and run as automated tests. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

1. Feature and stories

[One sentence: who gets what value from this feature.]

2. Business rules and examples

3. Feature file

The example file below is the source of truth for the feature. Keep it in the code repository next to the step definitions, and copy it here only for review and sign-off. Each Rule block carries the rule ID from section 2, and each scenario carries its scenario and story tags, so a failing test in a report points straight back to the story it accepts. The Scenario Outline runs once per row of its Examples table, which gives four test runs for one written scenario.

# language: en
@feature-notify-claim
Feature: Notify a home insurance claim online
  Policyholders report damage to their home online and get a claim
  reference without calling the contact centre.

  Background:
    Given the policyholder "Ana Ruiz" is signed in
    And she holds home policy "HP-20481"

  Rule: BR-CLM-004 Only active policies can notify a claim online

    @SC-01 @US-101
    Scenario: Claim notified for an active policy
      Given her policy "HP-20481" is active
      When she reports "escape of water" damage that happened yesterday
      Then she sees a claim reference
      And she receives a confirmation e-mail with the same reference

    @SC-02 @US-101
    Scenario: Claim rejected for a lapsed policy
      Given her policy "HP-20481" lapsed last month
      When she tries to report "escape of water" damage
      Then she is told that the policy is not active
      And she is offered the contact centre number

  Rule: BR-CLM-009 Photos are limited in size and number

    @SC-03 @US-102
    Scenario Outline: Photo upload limits
      Given her policy "HP-20481" is active
      And she has notified a claim
      When she uploads <count> photos of <size> MB each
      Then the upload is <result>

      Examples:
        | count | size | result   |
        | 3     | 4    | accepted |
        | 10    | 10   | accepted |
        | 11    | 2    | rejected |
        | 1     | 12   | rejected |

  Rule: BR-CLM-007 Large claims are referred to a handler

    @SC-04 @US-103
    Scenario: Claim above the referral limit is referred
      Given her policy "HP-20481" is active
      When she reports damage with an estimated value of 7,500
      Then the claim status is "Referred to handler"
      And no payment is offered online

    @SC-05 @US-103
    Scenario: Claim at the referral limit is not referred
      Given her policy "HP-20481" is active
      When she reports damage with an estimated value of 5,000
      Then the claim status is "Open"

4. Traceability

Copy the links into requirements/traceability-matrix when the project keeps one matrix for all requirements.

5. Writing checklist

6. Common anti-patterns

7. Open questions

Standard and licence note

Based on the Gherkin reference published by the Cucumber project at https://cucumber.io/docs/gherkin/reference/ (keywords Feature, Rule, Background, Scenario or Example, Scenario Outline, Examples, the step keywords Given, When, Then, And, But, tags and comments). The feature file, rules and examples are fictional and original text written for this collection. Check the current Gherkin reference before use, as keyword support can change between Gherkin versions. Template licence: MIT.