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The Behaviour Specification Handbook

General Tips

The Software Component Context Is King

When identifying, reading or writing Behaviour Specifications, the context (knowing which software component within the solution is being specified) is the most important thing to understand. It is essential to have a clear understanding of the boundary and responsibility of each software component, otherwise the Behaviour Specifications cannot be correctly understood. This is one reason why the low-level technical design is an important prerequisite.

Be aware of and careful not to start specifying and mixing the behaviours of other components into the behaviours of the current one being defined. There lies the path of complexity and confusion! If you smell that you might be going off-track, go back to and revisit the question — “within the context, boundary and responsibility of just this component…".

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