Cucumber BDD with Python Behave and Selenium WebDriver 2026

This section I will demo on how to install PyCharm. Which is an IDE for Python. You are free to use any IDE or text editor you prefer. If you already have an editor you like to use, then you can skip this section. Some options other than PyCharm are Notepad++ and Sublime.

We see how to enable PyCharm to use a virtual environment for our project. It will have access to installed libraries like Selenium and Behave.

We will look at a basic directory structure. How to set up our files so that behave will be able to find the test sand run them. We will use PowerPoint slides and discuss the concept.

We will look at creating the structure of our test framework. We will create folders that we will be using for the rest of the course. We will add more folders as needed throughout the course but here we will start with the bare minimum.

In this lecture we will get introduced to Feature files. Feature files are one of the major components of BDD style. We will discuss what Feature files look like, what they contain and what they are used for.

In this lecture we will get introduced to Steps directory and step definitions. Step directory and step definition files are the second critical components of BDD style. We will discuss what the steps directory is, why we need it, and how it is related to Feature files

This section discusses how to run a single feature file. A feature file tests one feature of an application. There may be multiple feature files in a directory. Behave have option of running all or just one file.

This section demo running of single feature time at a time. We will use the command line tool and run feature files.

This section discusses on how to run all feature files in a directory or sub-directory. We have seen how we can run a single feature file and now we see how to run all feature files.

This section demos running of all feature files in a directory and subcategories. We will use the command line tool to demo.

Discussion and demo off outputting information from the test to stdout. Behave offers few options on how the output should be displayed and we will explore on how to do so in this section.

Section to discuss and demo the main keywords we have seen already and additional key works that are “But” and 'And'. 

This section is discussion of how to pass values from the steps to the step definitions. The feature file will have hard coded values which then the value will be used in the Python logic. Example, quantity, name of web element, url, ….

This section demos passing values from the feature file to the Python logic.

This section is a discussion of how data can be shared between steps. It is important that data generated in one step should be available in the next step. Example, if user is created in first step then the login step should have access to the user information.

In this section I will demo sharing of data between steps using running examples.

This lecture introduces our section of practical examples. Practical examples are when we write real tests that are run against real websites .

In this lecture we will see how our project is set up. What our directory structure looks like and what are the bare minimum directories we need for the project

In this lecture we will write and run a test case using BDD for the python.org site.

In this lecture we continue to write and run a test case using BDD for the python.org site.

This lecture covers on how to create our custom config file and why. Config file is used to make maintenance of code a lot easier. Information used in several places can be stored as a config and modifying information will be done only at one location.

In this lecture we continue to write another test case for python.org, but this time we will use config file to get a better understanding of why using config files is very efficient.

We will discuss how to do setup and teardown of our environment using behave. Setup and teardown run before and after each feature, scenario, step or more to prepare information for the test and then to destroy or reset information after the test.