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Specification by Example

TTool · Specification by Example

By , Editor · · What’s Next

The requirement looked clear. Development built what they understood. Testing found it wasn't what the stakeholder meant. Everyone's pointing at the same sentence and reading it differently.

Specification by Example is Gojko Adzic's approach where concrete examples serve triple duty as requirements, documentation, and automated tests. You write Given-When-Then scenarios collaboratively — business and technical people together — forcing the precision that natural language lets everyone avoid.

A five-step horizontal flow headed "Could you write three concrete examples?" with numbered stages 01 DEMAND (Given X, when Y, then Z), 02 REFUSE, 03 RUN, 04 BUILD, and 05 REJECT, above the line "Vague ideas die at the spec stage. Concrete or no."
Method visual — Specification by Example
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“The deadline moved and nobody told my team.”

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