BDR Methodology

Behavior-Driven Living Requirements - The Universal Standard for Scalable Test Automation.

View the Project on GitHub dmitryAQA/bdr-methodology

Team Roles in BDR

BDR adoption involves multiple roles working together. This document defines the responsibilities of each role in the BDR ecosystem.

Roles Overview

Role Primary Focus Key Responsibilities
Automation QA (AQA) Technical Implementation Layer 0, Layer 1, Infrastructure
Manual QA / Business Analyst Business Logic Layer 3, Report Validation
Developer Feature Development Layer 2, Layer 1, Maintenance
Test Lead / Architect Standards & Strategy Methodology Enforcement, Coaching

Automation QA (AQA)

The technical backbone of BDR implementation.

Responsibilities

Key Artifacts

Layer Artifact Type Examples
Layer 0 Page Objects, API Clients LoginPage, CartAPI (file extensions depend on the stack)
Layer 1 Flows LoginFlow, CartFlow (file extensions depend on the stack)

Manual QA / Business Analyst

The bridge between business requirements and test specifications.

Responsibilities

Key Artifacts

Layer Artifact Type Examples
Layer 3 Scenarios checkout_happy_path, auth_login (file extensions depend on the stack)
Layer 2 Domain Classes Customer, Admin (implemented in the chosen programming language)

Developer

Contributor to test code as part of feature development.

Responsibilities

Key Artifacts

Layer Artifact Type Examples
Layer 2 Domain Actions Customer.addItemToCart()
Layer 1 Flows CartFlow.confirmAddition()

Test Lead / Architect

The guardian of BDR standards and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Key Artifacts

Type Examples
Standards CONTRIBUTING.md, Code review checklists
Metrics Flakiness reports, Coverage dashboards

Collaboration Matrix

Task AQA Manual QA Developer Lead
Write Layer 3 Scenarios ✓✓✓
Implement Layer 2   ✓✓✓
Implement Layer 1 ✓✓✓   ✓✓  
Implement Layer 0 ✓✓✓    
Review Reports ✓✓ ✓✓✓ ✓✓
Maintain Infrastructure ✓✓✓  

Legend: ✓✓✓ = Primary owner, ✓✓ = Regular contributor, ✓ = Occasional contributor


This role structure ensures clear ownership while promoting collaboration across the team.