Multi-disciplinary stakeholders explore a feature together, align on business goals, uncover edge cases, and agree on shared terminology. The outcome is a common understanding expressed in plain, testable language.

Product, QA, and Dev turn goals into concrete examples that illustrate desired behaviors and boundaries. These examples expose ambiguities early and become the seeds of precise acceptance criteria.

Examples are written as Gherkin scenarios using Given-When-Then. Each scenario describes context, action, and expected outcome, emphasizing observable behavior rather than implementation details or UI specifics.

Teams validate that scenarios cover success, failure, and edge paths. Criteria are minimal yet sufficient, traceable to business goals, and provide a clear 'done' definition for development and testing.

QA/Dev map Gherkin steps to executable step definitions using tools like Cucumber, SpecFlow, or Behave. Steps remain readable, reusable, and independent, turning scenarios into living, executable documentation.

Developers write only the code necessary to make failing scenarios pass, often following TDD at the unit level. Design remains modular, with domain language mirrored in code and tests.

Automated scenarios run locally and in CI pipelines. Failures provide fast feedback, guarding regressions, while tagged subsets enable focused checks across smoke, integration, or end-to-end stages.

Teams refactor steps, consolidate wording, remove duplication, and retire obsolete scenarios. Documentation stays current, and lessons from production feed new examples, sustaining a tight discovery–delivery feedback loop.