---
published: true
title: BDD can increase your ROI
layout: post
tags: [SpecFlow, BDD, SpecificationByExample, AcceptanceTestDrivenDevelopment]
---
I recently read about a study claiming that 24% of all IT projects in Germany fail. Think about this: if you start an IT project, you have one chance in four that your project will fail. That's better odds than in a casino, but worse odds than, for example, Russian roulette.

The website IT Cortex paints an even [grimmer](http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Cause.htm) [picture](http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm): half to three quarters of IT projects fail in some way. This begs the question: why? What are the causes?

The studies mentioned in those reports state that lack of or inadequate communication between relevant parties, and insufficient requirement management are to blame for at least a quarter and often more than half of those failures.

So in order to increase your chance of success with an IT project, and thus also increase the ROI of the time and money spent, wouldn't it be cool if some technique could improve the communication between involved parties and the understanding of the requirements?

Well, there is: *Behaviour Driven Development* (BDD, also called *Specification By Example* or *Acceptance Test Driven Development*) is a technique for specifying requirements that promotes communication between the involved parties, and builds up a common understanding of the requirements. It thus addresses some of the most important causes of failed IT projects.

Many people consider BDD to be a nice way of doing functional tests. It's not. The automated verification of the requirements is only a side effect: the real benefit from BDD lies in the improved communication and understanding of requirements.

## Summary

Inadequate communication between involved parties and poorly understood requirements are some of the main causes of failure in IT projects, and many IT projects do fail. Behaviour Driven Development directly addresses those causes, and thus increases both the chances of success of IT projects and the ROI of the money and effort spent on the project.
Add BDD can increase your ROI
Add BDD can increase your ROI
