Given – When – Then

Definition

The Given-When-Then formula is a template intended to guide the writing of acceptance tests for a User Story:

• (Given) some context
• (When) some action is carried out
• (Then) a particular set of observable consequences should obtain

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An example:

• Given my bank account is in credit, and I made no withdrawals recently,
• When I attempt to withdraw an amount less than my card’s limit,
• Then the withdrawal should complete without errors or warnings

Tools such as JBehave, RSpec or Cucumber encourage use of this template, though it can also be used purely as a heuristic irrespective of any tool.