Gherkin Test Cases: A Strategic Guide for Enterprise QA

Writing Effective Gherkin Test Cases

Writing effective Gherkin test cases is about clarity, simplicity, and maintainability. Well-written test cases make it easier for teams to collaborate, understand system behavior, and automate testing efficiently, especially when leveraging frameworks like Cucumber for seamless execution in Gherkin testing.

Following structured guidelines ensures scenarios remain readable, focused, and reusable.

Structuring Scenarios Clearly

Organize each scenario so its purpose is immediately obvious, guiding readers step by step through expected behavior. Focused, well-structured scenarios make it easier to spot gaps and maintain tests over time.

• Clear titles and descriptions: Each scenario should have a concise title describing the behavior being tested. A clear description helps anyone reading the test understand its purpose without needing background knowledge.
• Focus on a single behavior: Limit each scenario to testing one specific action or outcome. Avoid combining multiple behaviors in a single scenario, as this makes tests harder to read, maintain, and troubleshoot when failures occur.

Using Tags for Organization

Tags help group related scenarios, making it simple to run or report on specific parts of your test suite. Consistent and meaningful tagging improves test management and ensures teams can quickly locate relevant tests, particularly useful in Cucumber testing.

• Categorizing and filtering scenarios: Tags act as labels, helping teams run specific groups of tests. For example, @login or @regression allows selective execution of related scenarios.
• Best practices for tagging: Use meaningful, consistent tags. Avoid over-tagging, and group scenarios logically. Tags should reflect functionality, priority, or testing phase, making filtering and reporting straightforward.

Implementing Scenario Outlines

Scenario Outlines allow you to define a single scenario template that can run with different input values, streamlining repetitive tests. This makes it easy to expand coverage without creating separate scenarios for each data set.

• Data-driven testing with Scenario Outlines: Scenario Outlines let you run the same scenario with multiple sets of data, reducing duplication and ensuring comprehensive coverage across combinations, a strategy often applied in Cucumber testing.
• Example of a Scenario Outline with Examples table:

Scenario Outline: Successful login with multiple credentials
  Given the user navigates to the login page
  When the user enters username "<Username>" and password "<Password>"
  Then the user should see the welcome message "<Message>"

Examples:
  | Username     | Password   | Message            |
  | [email protected] | pass123   | Welcome, User1!    |
  | [email protected] | abc456    | Welcome, User2!    |
  | [email protected] | qwe789    | Welcome, User3!    |

Using Scenario Outlines ensures tests remain concise, readable, and maintainable while covering multiple data variations efficiently, making them ideal for Cucumber testing workflows.

Implementing Gherkin for Selenium Automated Testing

For demonstration purposes, you will use IntelliJ IDEA as it makes it easy to create and manage Java projects. You will use Selenium as your test automation framework.

To get started, follow the steps below:

Installation

The installation process consists of the following steps:

• Install JDK: You can download JDK from any of the following options:
  • Oracle JDK
  • OpenJDK
• Install IntelliJ IDEA: You can download the latest version from the IntelliJ IDEA Alternatively, you can also use any other popular IDE like JetBrains WebStorm, Eclipse, etc.
• Install a BDD Framework (Cucumber): Download Cucumber Java dependencies or add them via Maven in your pom.xml.

• Oracle JDK
• OpenJDK

Gherkin Project Setup

Below are the steps to create gherkin project:

• Open IntelliJ IDEA: Launch IntelliJ and select your workspace directory.
• Create a New Java Project: Go to File > New > Project > Java and enter project name (e.g., GherkinSeleniumDemo) > Click Finish.
• Create Packages:
• Create src/test/java/stepDefinitions for your step definition classes.
• Create src/test/resources/features for your Gherkin feature files.

How to Run Your First Gherkin Test Cases?

You will define a real-world scenario for automated testing using Gherkin. This section guides you to structure your feature file logically, ensuring each scenario clearly represents a single user action and its expected outcome.

Let’s write Gherkin test cases for the scenario: Login to an E-commerce Website. You will perform your tests on the sample website: the TestMu AI eCommerce Playground platform.

Test Scenario:

• Launch the Chrome browser.
• Open TestMu AI eCommerce Playground.
• Click on My Accounts.
• Select from the Dropdown the Login option.
• Enter the credentials.
• Click on the Login button.

Before code implementation, make sure you have the dependencies in place in the pom.xml file as shown below:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
        <artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
        <version>7.4.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
        <artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>
        <version>7.4.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.github.bonigarcia</groupId>
        <artifactId>webdrivermanager</artifactId>
        <version>5.0.3</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Now, in your project, create a folder: src/test/resources/features and inside it, create a new feature file named Login.feature. Write your Gherkin scenario using Given-When-Then syntax, as shown below:

Feature: User Login
  As a registered user
  I want to log into the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground
  So that I can access my account


  Scenario: Successful login via My Account dropdown
    Given the user launches the Chrome browser and opens the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground
    When the user clicks on "My Account" and selects "Login" from the dropdown
    And enters username "[email protected]" and password "pass123"
    And clicks the "Login" button
    Then the user should see the dashboard page

To write the Step Definition code, you need to now create a Java class in src/test/java/stepDefinitions and map each Gherkin step to the main file:

package stepDefinitions;
import io.cucumber.java.en.*;
import io.github.bonigarcia.wdm.WebDriverManager;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
public class LoginSteps {
    WebDriver driver;
    @Given("the user launches the Chrome browser and opens the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground")
    public void launchBrowserAndOpenWebsite() {
        WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        driver.get("https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/");
    }
    @When("the user clicks on {string} and selects {string} from the dropdown")
    public void selectLoginFromDropdown(String menu, String option) {
        WebElement myAccount = driver.findElement(By.linkText(menu));
        myAccount.click();
        WebElement loginOption = driver.findElement(By.linkText(option));
        loginOption.click();
    }
    @When("enters username {string} and password {string}")
    public void enterCredentials(String username, String password) {
        driver.findElement(By.id("username")).sendKeys(username);
        driver.findElement(By.id("password")).sendKeys(password);
    }
    @When("clicks the {string} button")
    public void clickLoginButton(String buttonName) {
        driver.findElement(By.id("loginButton")).click();
    }


    @Then("the user should see the dashboard page")
    public void verifyDashboard() {
        boolean dashboardVisible = driver.findElement(By.id("dashboard")).isDisplayed();
        assertTrue(dashboardVisible);
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Code Walkthrough:

Below is the code walkthrough for the above code:

• Class LoginSteps: Contains all step definitions for login functionality.
• WebDriver driver: Declares the browser driver instance for automation.
• @Given: Defines preconditions for the scenario, like opening a browser.
• WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup(): Sets up ChromeDriver automatically.
• driver = new ChromeDriver(): Launches a new Chrome browser instance.
• driver.manage().window().maximize(): Maximizes the browser window for visibility.
• driver.get(url): Navigates to the specified web page.
• @When: Defines actions taken by the user during the scenario.
• driver.findElement(By.linkText(menu)): Finds a web element using its visible link text.
• element.click(): Performs a click action on the specified element.
• driver.findElement(By.id(“username/password”)): Finds input fields by ID for typing.
• element.sendKeys(text): Enters text into input fields.
• driver.findElement(By.id(“loginButton”)): Locates the login button by ID.
• @Then: Defines the expected outcome or verification step.
• element.isDisplayed(): Checks if an element is visible on the page.
• assertTrue(condition): Asserts that the expected condition is true.
• driver.quit(): Closes the browser and ends the session.

Once you have created your step definition file then you need to create the test runner file that connects your Gherkin feature files with the step definitions and executes them.

It ensures that your scenarios are run in an organized manner and generates readable test reports.

Test Runner

By running the Test Runner, you can execute all scenarios in your feature files at once. You can also customize it to generate HTML or JSON reports for better visibility of test results.

package runners;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import io.cucumber.junit.Cucumber;
import io.cucumber.junit.CucumberOptions;
@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(
    features = "src/test/resources/features",
    glue = "stepDefinitions",
    plugin = {"pretty", "html:target/cucumber-reports.html"}
)
public class TestRunner {}

Execute Test

To execute your code right-click TestRunner.java > Run.

Gherkin works best when scenarios are written in clear, plain English, making them easy for both technical and non-technical teams to follow. This approach became even more powerful with the introduction of the Cucumber framework, which allowed teams to connect plain-language scenarios directly to automated tests.

By leveraging Selenium automation testing with Cucumber, teams can implement Gherkin scenarios in a fully automated workflow, ensuring test cases are readable, maintainable, and executed seamlessly across multiple browsers and environments.

Now, AI is extending this capability, making it simpler to draft consistent, BDD-style Gherkin test cases in plain English. Solutions like TestMu AI KaneAI help teams plan, author, and refine tests using natural language.

Designed for high-speed quality engineering teams, TestMu AI KaneAI integrates seamlessly with TestMu AI’s suite for test planning, execution, orchestration, and analysis.

TestMu AI KaneAI helps in:

• Write Gherkin Scenarios: Create BDD-style tests in plain English.
• Generate Steps Automatically: Convert high-level objectives into executable steps.
• Multi-Language Code Export: Export tests to major languages and frameworks.
• Cross-Platform Testing: Run scenarios on web and mobile devices.
• API Testing: Include backend and integration checks in BDD scenarios.
• Reusable Test Data: Use variables for flexible and maintainable scenarios.
• Organize & Sync Tests: Manage scenarios and keep instructions in sync with code.
• Smart Versioning: Track and evolve test scenarios safely over time.
• AI-Assisted Debugging: Identify and fix issues faster with GenAI support.
• HyperExecute Integration: Execute tests faster across 3000+ environments.
• Automated Test Planning: Plan and prioritize tests using AI insights.
• Scenario Evolution: Update and refine tests easily as requirements change.
• Execution Insights: Get detailed reports, analytics, and performance metrics.
• Collaboration-Friendly: Share and collaborate on BDD scenarios across teams.