Domain-Oriented BDD using Pytest: A Design-Focused Approach to Reusable Behaviour Specifications

Abstract

Automation testing often suffers from brittle scripts that are difficult to maintain and poorly aligned with business requirements. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) emerged to address this gap by enabling stakeholders to collaborate through a shared, executable specification language. However, without careful structural design, BDD implementations can quickly degrade into unreadable and fragile codebases. This paper proposes an approach that integrates Pytest-BDD with Domain-Oriented Test Design (DOTD) to create reusable, maintainable, and communication-rich behavioural specifications. By combining BDD’s collaborative philosophy, the flexibility of the Pytest ecosystem, and the domain-driven structuring principles of DOTD, the framework ensures that test suites serve not only as verification tools but also as living documentation. This alignment fosters resilience to change, enhances stakeholder communication, and embeds test artefacts within the broader software lifecycle.