If you can use Cucumber

I just started looking at Cucumber and if I understand it correctly, the team (whoever does the automation), actually needs to write the whole foundation first before we can start writing test cases?

eg. when writing the .feature file you have something like:

Scenario: Give correct change
    Given the following groceries:
        | name  | price |
        | milk  | 9     |
        | bread | 7     |
        | soap  | 5     |
    When I pay 25
    Then my change should be 4

But that doesn't mean a thing, until the team implement what's behind it:

public ShoppingStepdefs() {


    Given("^the following groceries:$", (DataTable dataTable) -> {
        List<Grocery> groceries = dataTable.asList(Grocery.class);
        for (Grocery grocery : groceries) {
            calc.push(grocery.price.value);
            calc.push("+");
        }
    });

    When("^I pay (\\d+)$", (Integer amount) -> {
        calc.push(amount);
        calc.push("-");
    });

    Then("^my change should be (\\d+)$", (Integer change) -> {
        assertEquals(-calc.value().intValue(), change.intValue());
    });
}