W16 Agile Testing
5/1/2013 3:00:00 PM
Automation Culture: Essential to
Agile Success
Presented by:
Geoff Meyer
Dell, Inc.
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com
Geoff Meyer
A test architect in the Dell Enterprise Solutions Group, Geoff Meyer has more than twenty-seven years of experience as a software developer, manager, test architect, and business analyst. Geoff co-chairs the Agile Steering committee within Dell Enterprise Solutions Group which guides the software development practices of more than 600 development, test, and UX engineers across three Global Design Centers. He is an active member of the Agile Austin community.
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Automation Culture:Essential to Agile SuccessSTAR East 2012
Geoff Meyer, [email protected]
24 April 2013Last updated: February 28, 2013
Session Objectives• Challenges to expect when adopting Test
automation during your transition to Agile
• Practical Solutions to What, When and What Not
to Automate
• Real-world examples − from a large organization
perspective
• Challenges automating in a HW-dependent
environment
• For Organizational Leaders driving Strategy
• A Tools Discussion
• Focused on how to develop Test Automation
IS
IS
NOT
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Introductions
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Geoff Meyer
• Dell Inc, 1998 – present
– Test Architect
› Agile Test & Automation Strategy
– Agile Steering Committee Co-Chair
– Global Projects
› 15 Scrum teams
› 9 scrum teams
› 7 Scrum teams
• NCR Corp. 1984 – 1998
– SW developer, Project Lead, SW Manager
• B.S. Computer Science, San Diego State University
• Masters Engineering Management - NTU
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Agenda
• Why Automation is essential to Agile
• The Dell Landscape and Agile @ Dell
– Organizational Context Matters
• Challenges and Common Pitfalls
• The Automation Landscape
• Foundations of an Automation Culture
• Care and Feeding of the Automation Culture
The Need,
The Challenge,
The Pitfalls
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Why is Automation So Important in Agile?
• Near-term
– Ensures that you don’t break what you just built
– Provides safety net for developers & rapid feedback to new changes
– Continuous Integration and use of Build Verification Test (BVT)
• Long-term
– Maximizes velocity of Scrum team
– Creates capacity for Exploratory and ad-hoc Testing
– Enables activities that can’t be done cost-effectively by humans
And if you don’t…
Projects rapidly build up an unmanageable regression suite
Differences with Automation in Waterfall?
In Waterfall…
• Automated tests are derived from the backlog of completed features
– In Agile, Automation can be incorporated in the requirement
• Testing and automation is performed after Development is complete
• Focus is on first-time discovery of defects and optimizing your test coverage
vs. Agile… where automation provides immediatefeedback to defect introduction
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The Challenge
Adopting Agile…
…In an organization that doesn’t have an Automation Culture
“Apply Test Automation in the
context of your organizational
automation needs”
--- Bob Galen, iControl
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The Context @ Dell
http://amazngwallpapers.blogspot.com
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Dell Enterprise Solutions GroupGlobal Design and Development using Agile Scrum
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Noida Design
Center
Bangalore
Design Center
Austin
Design Center
Silicon Valley
Design Center
Dell Enterprise SolutionsSoftware Products
• Server Systems Management
• Converged Infrastructure Systems Management
• Private Cloud Server Management
• Console Plug-ins (i.e. for SCCM, vCenter…)
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Common Product Characteristics:
• Large hardware support test matrix
• Software is installed the Data Center
• Enterprise update cycles ~6 months
• Products must function even as underlying FW, BIOS,
and Drivers are upgraded - SUSTAINING
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Agile @ Dell Roles/Responsibilities
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Product
Owner
Product Owner Proxy1 per Scrum
Scrum Master1 per Scrum
Development4-5 per Scrum
Test2:1
InfoDev1 per 3 scrum team
UI1 per Scrum
Architecture, Design, Development, Unit Test
Test Design, Automation Development
UI Design, Development, Unit Test
User-facing text, error messages, online help
Facilitate, Remove Scrum impediments
Scrum teams
User Story Development
Customer rep. for Scrum team
Story Acceptance
Product Management
Epic Prioritization & Business Value
Represents Customer - Profiles/Roles
Requirement Acceptance
Agile @ Dell with Adaptations
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Hardening
1 2 3 N-1 N
1 2 3 N-1 N
1 2 3 N-1 N
…
Release Exit
FeatureComplete
Code FreezeSprints
Release Plan
Define Plan Develop Launch
PRP
…
Software System Test
Extended Sprint Test
Stability
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Pitfalls encountered at
• Development didn’t historically automate unit tests
• Build teams were staffed with non-Build practitioners
• Minimal guidance beyond “Go forth and automate”
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• Architecture(s) not optimized for Automatability
• Automation was interpreted by many as “Automate the UI”
• Insufficient SW engineering background across Test teams
Which Resulted In…
• Automation not keeping up within the sprint
• Feature Devotion
• Multiple automation tools & licenses
• Test scripts not designed for re-use
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The Automation Landscape
http://amazngwallpapers.blogspot.com
Opportunities for Automation
• It’s not just about Test cases
• Can provide efficiencies to:
–Test Preparation, Setup and Configuration
–Test Content Development and Execution
› Continuous Integration & Automated BVT
› Acceptance Testing
› Test Matrix coverage
–Non-Functional Testing
› Longevity, Scale and Performance Characterization
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Test Preparation
• Setup & Configuration
– OS Provisioning and Configuration
• Deployment
• Test case staging
• Environment Cleanup/Baseline
• Virtualization-based test environments
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Test Content DevelopmentWhole team ownership of QA & Automation
• UI automation on Customer Usage workflows
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CAUTION: Application Architecture can be an enabler or inhibitor
• Unit Test Automation
• Automated CI (UT, Build, BVT)
• Web-services (or CLI) Test Automation for Functional Testing
• In-Sprint, Automated Acceptance Tests
1 - Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile teams
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Application Architecture Matters
• Does it facilitate testing at the API/Services level?
• Does the Business/Error Logic reside below the services level?
• Does the UI architecture support test automation other than record-playback?
For Large organizations:– Standardize UI architectures across the product portfolio
› HTML5, Flex, Silverlight…
– Standardize Service architectures across the product portfolio
› SOAP, REST, CLI, API
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Prioritize and Identify what NOT to Automate
What NOT to Automate
• Everything
• GUI – Except for High-value customer usage flows once the UI is stable
• Tests that would only find low severity bugs
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Prioritize High ROI
1. BVT Candidate Acceptance Test
– Test of core functionality that executes in a short duration
2. Core Functionality to be run in Nightly Regression
3. Sustaining Test Candidate Test
– Functional test that verifies the application can withstand subsystem changes
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Non-Functional Testing
• Performance Characterization
• Longevity
• Stress
• Scale
• Concurrency
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Often times analysis of these areas are simply too cost-prohibitive to be done manually
2 - http://lisacrispin.com/wordpress/2011/11/08/using-the-agile-testing-quadrants/
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Foundations of an Automation Culture
Images.yahoo.com
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Keys To A Culture Transition
• Development vs. Test
• A different “School” of Test3
• Evolve from Functional Responsibility
…to Whole Product Ownership
253 – Scott Barber “Approaches to Software Testing: An Introduction “
Establishing an Automation Culture
• Identify
• Near and long-term automation focus areas
• Inventory the culture and skillset of organization
• Establish
– Tooling and Infrastructure Standardization
– Develop your ‘community’
• Develop
– Workforce transition plan
• Organize
– Embedded vs. Specialized Automation team
– Re-align project staffing
• Operationalize
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IdentifyFocus Areas for Automation
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4 - http://lisacrispin.com/wordpress/2011/11/08/using-the-agile-testing-quadrants/
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Establish
• Tooling and Infrastructure
–Tooling Standards and Frameworks
–Team to develop/manage home-grown tools
–Lead tool evaluations to meet new architectures & technologies
• Community: Internal and External
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Multiple automation Tools/FW’s may be needed to automate at layers of testing:
• Unit level• Middle tier• UI-driven
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Develop & Organize
• Adjust Hiring Practices
• Re-align Project staffing
• Embedded Automation vs. Specialized
Automation team
• Training
–New-hire and ongoing
Confidential29
Operationalize
• Whole team commitment in words and actions
• Include Test Automation in Acceptance Criteria
–Unit
–Acceptance
• Continuous Integration and BVT
• Establish Metrics and Governance
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Care and Feeding of the Automation Culture
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Maintaining the Automation Culture
• Operationalize Automation
– Include Test Automation in the Acceptance Criteria
• Encourage Community Practice and Participation
– External - Industry User groups & Conferences
– Internal - Brown-bag sessions, Showcases, Mini-conference
• For Large organizations:
– Overcome Skillset deficiencies by adjusting staffing strategy
– Automation Leadership team, Automation Architect(s)
– Continually monitor the alignment of Arch, Dev and Test
– Develop reward systems
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Recognizing a Successful Automation Culture
• Automation is a shared responsibility
• Automatability is a key architectural
consideration
• Continuous Integration & BVT
• Teams are staffed to include an
automation skillset
• Automation is operationalized
Resources
• Agile Manifesto
• Articles:
– http://support.smartbear.com/articles/testcomplete/automated-testing-agile-environment/ - SmartBear
– http://lisacrispin.com/wordpress/2011/11/08/using-the-agile-testing-quadrants/ -Lisa Crispin
– http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=COL&ObjectId=17793&tth=DYN&tt=siteemail&iDyn=2 – Rajini Padmanaban
• Books:
– Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises – Dean Leffingwell
– How Google Tests Software – James Whittaker, Jason Arbon, Jeff Carollo
– Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile teams – Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory
• Presentations:
– Approaches to Software Testing: An Introduction – Scott Barber
– Agile Testing: Challenges Beyond the Easy Contexts – Bob Galen34
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Questions?
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Backup
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