Here’s an introductory tutorial for those of you interested in getting started with RSpec.

Background

Behaviour Driven Development is an Agile development process that comprises aspects of Acceptance Test Driven Planning, Domain Driven Design and Test Driven Development. RSpec is a BDD tool aimed at TDD in the context of BDD.

You could say that RSpec is what is traditionally known as a unit testing framework, but we prefer to describe it as “a Domain Specific Language for describing the expected behaviour of a system with executable examples.”

Also, the process that this tutorial guides you through is Test Driven Development at its core, but we use words like “behaviour” and “example” instead of “test case” and “test method”.

To understand why we choose this nomenclature, and more detailed history of BDD and RSpec’s evolution, check out the writings of Dan North, Dave Astels, and Brian Marick.

Throughout the tutorial, I’ll address some of the philosophy behind various choices that are made, but you’ll have a much better understanding of them (or at least a context to put them in) if you peruse these recommended readings.