Janet Gregory - Agile testing challenges Knowit 2014

Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc. Copyright 2014

Knowit, Helsinki

2014

Copyright 2014 DragonFire Inc.

First agile team – 2000

Currently – coaching, testing

Agile Testing; January 2009

Working on 2nd book: Fall 2014 2


• Testing and agile

• Challenges and suggestions

• Importance of collaboration

• Wrap-up

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• have short feedback loops

• active customer participation

• demand whole team collaboration

• test features as they are coded

• deliver business value at regular intervals

• adapt their processes based on feedback

…and so on………….

Agile teams:

produce a continuous stream of value at a sustainable pace, while adapting to the changing needs of the business.

http://testobsessed.com/blog/2010/12/14/the-agile-acid-test/


• more than “just” testing code

• an activity; not a phase

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Potentially shippable product

Potentially shippable product


1. Testing doesn’t keep up with coding

2. Forgetting the big picture

3. Testers aren’t really part of the team

4. Trying to test everything manually

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Copyright 2014 DragonFire Inc. 8

Risk: The Mini-Waterfall

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• Stories aren’t tested completely

• Testers lose credibility

• Technical debt increases

• Team changes meaning of ‘DONE’


• Include testing tasks in the velocity

• Involve whole team in story creation

◦ ensure stories are small and testable

• Get your developers used to immediate feedback

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• Know your build pipeline

• Provide adequate test infrastructure

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Instead of saying NO,

or being the gatekeeper

Be the information provider so business can make the decisions

Questions… about not testing stories

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The red flags

• Testing only individual stories

• Finding integration bugs late

• Testing is based on what developers code

• Testing finds requirements type bugs

• Developers add extra code after they are finished

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We only see the tip of the Iceberg We don’t think of big systems We only looking at our own team.

The Risks

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• Think system impacts

• Test data to reflect real world ◦ Examples, exploratory tests

• Draw pictures / workflows

• Understand the story before coding starts

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• Define “Release DONE” ◦ What needs to be in place?

• Define “Feature DONE” ◦ Acceptance tests for bigger picture

• Define “story DONE” ◦ Acceptance tests – expected behaviour,

misbehaviours

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Understand the business value !

ATDD (Acceptance Test Driven Development)





Questions… Remembering the Big Pic?

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• Testers aren’t in iteration planning sessions

• Testers test what the developers code

• Testers don’t understand the stories

Testers don’t actively participate

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• Wrong assumptions are made

• Impacts to the system are found too late

• Everyone’s skills are not utilized

• The team becomes divided

• Testers don’t know what is going on


• Communication is through the defect tracking system

• Developers use testers as a safety net

• The team never ‘gels’

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• Project team doesn’t buy the ‘build quality in’ concept

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Tips for Tester Involvement

Copyright 2014 DragonFire Inc. Copyright 2009 Janet Gregory, DragonFire 27

The Agile Testing Quadrants (adapted from Brian Marick)





Questions about whole team?

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• Spending time retesting features already tested

• Not testing new features

• Not contributing to implementation / design discussions

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• Testers miss meetings – too busy

• Regression suite not run regularly


• Testing cannot keep up with new stories

• Features that used to work, are broken and not noticed

• Testers don’t learn new technology

• Testers get stuck in a rut

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• Automate as you go

• Include automation time in your estimates

• Design for testability

• Chose tools that encourage collaboration

• Understand the power & risks of automation

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Common automation model

Automation through the

GUI

Unit Tests

push the tests lower

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“Living

Documentation” David Evans, Gojko Adzic


**Automation does not exclude the need for exploratory testing*





Questions… Automation?

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• Can’t “test quality in”

• Whole team thinks testing

• Team is committed to quality

• Whole team solves problems

• Everyone collaborates

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Agile testing is full of challenges

• Problems happen faster, so impact is felt faster

• Be courageous – be a change agent

• Adapt, Learn

Mostly, have fun and enjoy the

challenge!

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Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

By Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory www.agiletester.ca

Contact info

www.janetgregory.ca

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: janetgregoryca

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• www.lisacrispin.com

• [email protected]

• www.testobsessed.com (heuristics cheat sheet)

• Gojko Adzic, Specification by Example, 2011, Bridging the Communication Gap, 2009, Impact Mapping 2013

• www.stickyminds.com/ Pragmatic Personas - Jeff Patton’s weekly column 1/25/2010

• www.mountaingoatsoftware.com – Mike Cohn’s web site

• http://www.exampler.com - Brian Marick’s web site

• Ester Derby and Dianne Larsen, Agile Retrospectives

• Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/

• Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Lean Software Development, Addison-Wesley (series of 3)

• Photos – Janet’s vacations or Microsoft office

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