Paul, Thanks for the kind words; I'm glad you enjoyed the article.

Regarding BDD, you are definitely correct in that developers don’t require this at all to succeed. Though in my experience at even small software shops, it can add further value. Learning BDD has helped me (rather than being a hindrance) in better learning to build a feature and tangible acceptance criteria, based on requirements - and then being accountable for the implementation.

You’re also right that it really only works well when the company (and therefore your entire team) is invested in it. In a perfect world, if BDD was used in the way it was intended, it could help us all understand the bigger picture more clearly. In reality, most of us won’t care or can’t make the time for it. I hope to influence people in seeing the value of it.

I can easily see how the phrase “best practices” can trigger a rather off-putting visceral reaction for some. Self-righteous developers can use the phrase to justify bullying of those who write “garbage code”. On the other end of it, a hipster-esque developer may want to adopt trends without fully understanding the why of it, or the subtleties which may cascade into a bigger impact on an older product.