Is your team using Cucumber like this?
Fantastic! I hope you're reaping some benefits from that. But you can do better!
You could write your Cucumber scenarios before you write the code so that programmers can be guided by an unambiguous specification. This would allow programmers to catch mistakes immediately.
You could write your Cucumber scenarios in such a way that they actually illustrate business rules and not just the UI. If you do that you might actually get the business analysts and product owners on board.
You could write your Cucumber scenarios in such a way that future project members can figure out what the system does simply by reading the scenarios.
You could do BDD:
I recently coached a team in an insurance company that had a scenario like this:
Scenario Outline: Detect agent type based on contract number (single contract found)
Given I am on the "Find me" page
And I have entered a contract number
When I click the "Continue" button
And a contract number match is found
And the agent type is <DistributorType>
Then the contract number field will become uneditable
And the "Back" button will be displayed
And the following <text> and <input field type> will be displayed
Examples:
| DistributorType | input field type | text |
| Broker | Date of birth | Please enter your last name |
| TiedAgent | Last name | Please enter your date of birth |
We refactored it together to remove all the UI stuff and focussed on making it illustrate a single business rule. This is what we ended up with:
Scenario: Customer has a broker policy so DOB is requested
Given I have a "Broker" policy
When I submit my policy number
Then I should be asked for my date of birth
Scenario: Customer has a tied agent policy so last name is requested
Given I have a "TiedAgent" policy
When I submit my policy number
Then I should be asked for my last name
See how much more succinct and to-the-point this is?
This is the essence of BDD. Illustrating business rules with examples (not testing a UI). Cucumber lets you keep specifications, automated tests and documentation in the same place - a single source of truth that never gets out of sync.
Imagine the impact this would have on the development and maintenance costs of your projects. Shorter feedback cycle to fix bugs. Less rework because of misunderstood requirements.
What's holding you back?