BDD Scenario Argument Resolution - file type is a prerequisite input to the scenario

Question

I have to sympathetically resolve a debate internally. Take this scenario, it's not perfect but bear with me.

As Arthur

I want to upload multiple lists of appointment data during the day

So that a SMS message is sent to the patient to check their emails.

The file is exported from a 3rd party system in .csv, we have no control over this, and Arthur currently continues in that format.

A colleague is adamant that the scenario should be:

As Arthur

I want to upload multiple lists of appointment data during the day in .csv format

So that a SMS message is sent to the patient to check their emails.

I feel that the file type is an acceptance criteria, not part of the scenario because Arthur could have saved it to xlsx for analysis on other tabs. We would need to fail that should the business insist we only support .csv upload. BDD is new to the company and I don't profess to be an expert, I am trying to get better fast, so any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Answer 1

Your requirement is to support whatever file format that third party system is able to generate (or at least one of those formats, if there is a choice). Then write that down.

As Arthur
I want to import multiple lists of appointment data during the day from {third party service}
So that a SMS message is sent to the patient to check their emails.

This is not inherently a CSV file, this just happens to be a CSV file. As such your hunch that it would be excessive to mention the CSV type in the scenario is largely correct.

In fact, your use case seems to be about synchronizing with the third party service. A manual export/import of data might be one way to solve this, but if the service provides an API that you can integrate, this might be a much better solution to this requirement. Possibly, the use case should be phrased like this:

As a patient,
I want to receive an SMS notification when my appointment status in {third party system} changes
So that I remember to check my email.

While this describes the value of the scenario better, it might be so high level that it's not actionable for you. So it depends a lot on context how this should be phrased. Maybe the first variant that describes the perspective of an immediate user of your system might be better.