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ATDD Cycle – ISTQB Definition
Last Updated: July 12, 2026 · SoftwareTestPilot QA Team
Official ISTQB Definition
The iterative acceptance-test-driven development cycle: discuss, distill, develop, demo. Tests derived from acceptance criteria drive development.
In simple words
Discuss the story, distill acceptance tests, develop code + tests, demo to stakeholders.
Exam tip
ATDD focuses on customer-facing tests; TDD focuses on developer-facing unit tests.
Related terms
- Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)The team agrees on acceptance tests up front and only writes code that makes those tests pass.
- Acceptance CriteriaThe checklist that says a user story is done and shippable.
- Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)BDD writes tests as plain-English scenarios so business, devs and QA agree on what the feature should do before code is written.
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