The Magazine for Agile Developers and Agile Testers

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July 2010

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Food for thought

OneoftheAgilemethodscurrentlybeingappliedinmanyorgani-zationsisSCRUM,amethodforprojectmanagementthatusesincrementalworkcyclesknownassprintstoprovidefrequentop-portunitiestoassessandrevisedirection.Assooften,however,itissimplebutnoteasy!TheSCRUMmethoddoesn’tsaymuchabouttesting,andinmostbooksonlyunittestinganduserac-ceptance testing are addressed. Have integration and systemtestingnowbecomeobsolete?Developersandbusinessrepre-sentativesshoulddothemajorpartofthetestingactivitieswith-inAgiledevelopments.Itseemslikeutopia,butwhatdoesitlooklikeinreal-life?Exploratorytestingisoftenidentifiedasthemaintechnique;what about our traditional test design techniques -are they no longer needed? These andmanymore questionsneedtobeaddressedwhenmovingfromatraditionalV-modeltype developmentmethodology to an Agilemethodology, suchasSCRUM.Whenreadingthiscolumn,youmaygettheimpres-sionthatI’magainstSCRUM,Agiledevelopmentandthelike.Youcouldnotbemorewrong!However,IwouldliketopointoutsometestingissuesfrompracticethatoneencounterswhenstartingtoapplySCRUM.Inotherwords:“foodforthought”forthereaderwhen moving from a traditional development methodology toAgiledevelopment/SCRUM.A checklist of risks that shouldbemitigatedoratleastconsideredduringthechangeprocess.Notethatmostoftheriskitemsarenotevennew,butwerealreadyachallenge during traditional V-model development and testing.Bytheway,mypersonalexperiencesarenotfromthegamesandinternetindustry, likemanysimplifiedstoriesonehearsatcon-ferences,butfrommorecriticalenvironmentssuchasfinance,embeddedsoftwareandmedicalsystems,wherequalitymattersandisakeybusinessdriver.

Risk item 1: Test professionals

Oneneedstoassessthecurrentsetoftestersanddecidewheth-ertheyare“fitforAgile”.

WithinAgiletesting,qualityistheteam’sresponsibility.Thetestanalysts now have a different role. In addition to testing, theyhavetocoachbusinessrepresentativesanddevelopersontest-ing issues, reviewunit tests,etc. The tester isalso involved inestimationsessions,definingtheexitcriteria(definition-of-done),reviewingstoriesandmakingthemtestable.Allofthisrequiresaseniorpersonwithgoodcommunicationskills.It’salmostlikewerequire ISTQBAdvanced Level testers; people that understandandareabletoexplaintechnicaltesting,businesstesting,testdesign and testmanagement issues.What dowedowith ourjuniortesters?Whatdowedoifwedon’thaveseniortesterswiththerightskills?LisaCrispin inherbook“AgileTesting”definesanumberofqualitiesthatagiletestersshouldpossess:delivervaluetocustomers,havecourage,respondtochange,continu-ousfeedback,etc.Ifyoustudythoseinmoredetail,thereislittletonodifferencetowhat Iwouldcallasenior testanalyst (inatraditionalenvironment). Ifweanalysethings,LisaCrispinsaysthatweneedrealprofessionalseniortesterswiththerightknowl-edge, skills andmindset. Sowhat is new?Doesn’t this soundfamiliar?

Risk item 2: Developers

WithinAgilesoftwaredevelopment,unittestingisessential.WhyisitessentialonlyinAgile,andwhydoesitnowgetallthefocus?Itshouldhavebeenessentialineverylifecyclemethodology!Candevelopersallofasuddenapplytestdesigntechniques?Mostof themhavenever hadany training in structured testing, notevenatfoundationlevel.Unittestingisnotaseasyasitseems,understandingtestdesignissomethingnotsocommonformostdevelopers.WritingtestcodethatmakesthecodefailasinXPdoes provide structural coverage, but not a high level of func-tionalcoverage.Gettingdevelopersintotestingneedsapracticalapproach.We at Improve Quality Services often provide work-shopswithhands-onreal-lifepracticalcasestogetthemstarted.Test automation, essential with any incremental developmentmethodology,isalsoneeded.Astestprofessionalshavealready

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SCRUM & Testing: Assessing the risksby Erik van Veenendaal

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known for years, this isstillabigchallenge formostorganiza-tionsforvariousreasons.AllAgileissayingis,weneedhighqual-ityunit testsand fullyautomated regression tests. Things thathaveneverbeeneasyinthepast.Sowhatisnew?Doesn’tthissoundfamiliar?

Risk 3: Test levels and test types

MostbooksonAgile(testing)haveastrongfocusonunittestinganduseracceptancetesting.

Whateverhappenedtogoodoldintegrationandsystemtesting?Whataboutsystem integration testing inasystems-of-systemsenvironment?Ofcourse,thereisn’tjustoneanswer,sincethesetermsmeandifferentthingsindifferentorganizations.ThemainproblemIhavewiththisapproachisthatagain,afterall theseyears, we have to re-explain to management why integrationtestingandsystemtestingareneeded.CaperJoneshasalreadytaughtusthatunittestingdoesn’tgetfarbeyondaDefectDetec-tion Percentage (DDP) of 35% to 40%, and togetherwith onlyvalidation-orientedusecasesused inuseracceptance testing,justdoesn’tgetthejobdone!Thoroughtestcasesusing,forex-ample, decision tables or classification trees are still requiredinmany instances. Also, exploratory testing has its limitations(sorry,James,Michael).Sometestlevelsortesttypestakeplaceoutsidea sprint,which seems impossibleaccording to theAg-iletheory,butthisiswhatIseesuccessfullyhappeninginprac-tice.Reliability andperformance testing for example are oftentesttypesthatrunformorethanfourweeks,andorganizinganoperationalacceptancetestorasystemintegrationtestwithinasprinthasbeenshowntobeverydifficultinpractice.Asare-sult,inpracticesomeofthetestingoftentakesplaceoutsidetheSCRUMsprint.Amajorissueisthentoalignthetestingeffortsandapproachesinsideandoutsidethesprint.Whatneedstobedone?Establishateststrategythatcoversall testingactivities(levelsandtypes).Tounambiguouslydefinetestingisusuallyahugestepintherightdirection.ThishasbeentheissueinthepastwiththeV-modelandisalsoneededforAgilesoftwarede-velopment.Sowhatisnew?Doesn’tthissoundfamiliar?

Many more challenges

Theissuesraisedabovearebynomeansthefullrisklist.Iwant-edtoprioritize,keepitshortand“writeAgile”.Someotherriskitemstobeconsidered:

• Risk item 5: The Test ManagerWhathappens to the testmanagerwhose role isnowobso-lete?

• Risk item 6: StressIfwedeliversoftwareeveryfourweeks,therewillbestressfulrelease periodsmore often.What does thismean for thoseinvolved?

• Risk item 7: Distributed teamsHowdoweorganizeAgiletestingwithdistributedteams,andhowdoesitfitwithoutsourcing?

• Risk item 8: Management understandingDoesmanagement really understand thebackground to theAgilemanifesto?EvenwithinSCRUM,therearelimitationstochange!

• Risk item 9: Business involvementHow easy is it to get the right business representatives on-boardand get them to do some testing? (Inmy experience,evenreviewingtestcasesandprovidinginputtoaproductriskanalysisisoftenaskingtoomuch.)

• Etc.

The manifestos

Again,IwouldliketoemphasizeI’mnotagainstSCRUM.I’mactu-allyabigfanofteam-basedworkingandAgile.Inpractice,how-ever,itjustisn’taseasyasexplainedinthebooksandpresentedbysomeoftheso-calledgurus.Ifyouareabletohandlesomeoralloftheriskspresented,SCRUMprojectshaveshowntobeverysuccessful.Itusuallyhelpsenormouslytohaveadetaileddiscus-sionabouttheAgilemanifestowithallthoseinvolved.Whatdoesitreallymean?It’sallaboutthephilosophybehindthemanifesto,understandingwhatismeant,andnotabouttheactualwordings.SomeonewhoreallyunderstandstheAgilemanifestomayevennoticethattherearealotofsimilaritieswiththetestprocessim-provementmanifesto[TestingExperience,Issue4,2008].

•Flexibilityoverdetailedprocesses•Best practicesovertemplates•Deployment orientationoverprocessorientation•Peer reviewsoverQualityAssurance(departments)•Business-drivenovermodel-driven

Most of these statements caneasily beadapted to Agile soft-waredevelopment.Sowhatisreallynew?I“even”haveanum-berofclientsatTMMilevels2or3,thatpracticeSCRUM.Infact,thoseorganizationsthathadthestructuredtestinginplaceand/orwereatCMMIlevelXseemtobemoresuccessfulatSCRUMthanothers.Again“foodforthought”…

IhopethisshortpapermakesyouawareofsomeofthetestingissuesthatcomewiththeimplementationofSCRUMinanorga-nizationorproject.Discussthemwithteammembersinsideandoutsidetestingandmanagement,andfindpracticalresult-drivensolutions.GoodluckinmasteringSCRUM.■

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Erik van Veenendaal(www.erikvanveenendaal.nl) is a leading internation-al consultant and trainer, and a recognized expert in the area of software test-ing and quality manage-ment. He is the founder of Improve Quality Services BV (www.improveqs.nl). At EuroStar 1999, 2002 and

2005, he was awarded the best tutorial presentation. In 2007 he received the European Testing Excellence Award for his contribution to the testing profession over the years. He has been working as a test manager and consultant in various domains for more than 20 years.

He has written numerous papers and a number of books, including “The Testing Practitioner”, “ISTQB Foundations of Software Testing” and “Testing accord-ing to TMap”. Erik is also a former part-time senior lecturer at the Eindhoven University of Technology, vice-president of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (2005–2009) and currently vice chair of the TMMi Foundation.

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