Business-Driven Development (BDD)

Definition - What does Business-Driven Development (BDD) mean?

Techopedia explains Business-Driven Development (BDD)

One of the inherent problems in today’s enterprise software development process is an inability to keep up with the pace at which businesses must change in response to emerging trends. In order for enterprise IT departments to survive, they must align themselves with emerging business demands. IT departments are increasingly being expected to engineer solutions that addresses one or more business process problems, rather than concentrating on creating solutions that are IT-centric.

Most IT departments spend a major share of their budget in enhancing and maintaining their existing applications. As the business leapfrogs with the latest process enhancements, the inflexible existing applications may not be capable of honoring the necessary changes. In such a scenario, a need for a new mechanism that aligns the IT department's efforts with business demands and business strategy has emerged. BDD facilitates this via a framework that is well understood, standardized, and can be carried out effectively and repeatedly.

The first step is to create a business process model (BPM) and measure it through key performance indicators (KPI), return on investment (ROI), or other metrics. Then, the enterprise can use these BPMs as a crucial mechanism to communicate the business requirements to the IT realm.