Specifications for Enterprise Testing

December 2011

Specifications For Enterprise Testing

Presenters

Sathyan Sethumadhavan & Shalabh Varma

Private and Confidential. © 2011 ThoughtWorks, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agenda

Where do we spend more time

A new approach for collaboration

Implement Specifications

Gauge Progress

Q&A


Do you experience any of this

Long Regression Cycles

Defects Leakage - Missing Requirements

Test and Requirements documents becomes stale

Spends more time on defect management and triage

Less confidence - Existing test coverage

Frequent changes - Breaks existing functionalities


Do you spend more time here

Requirements document

Creating test plan and strategy

Creating test Cases/Steps

Defect Management

Traceability Matrix

Fix productionDefects



Specifications Driven Development


EXAMPLES

REQUIREMENTS

TESTSCan Become

Elaborate

Verify


Specifications – Focus Area

Requirementsdocument

Creating test plan and strategy

Creating test cases

Defect management and analysis

Traceability Matrix

Fix production defects

Specifications for both humans and machines

Tests as Documentation

Managing stale artifcats

Specifying Collaborately

Validating Frequently


A Good Specification

Examples should be complete

Precise and Testable

True Specification – Not a script

About business functionality – Not software design

Self-explanatory and focused






Benefits

Distributed teams - Necessary artifacts and re-use artifacts

One-time specification – Referred by stakeholders and team

Artifacts remain as living documents

Focus on collaboration and communication gap

More time on exploratory/business testing

Time-to-market availability


Specifications – Key Process Patterns


Key Process Patterns


Key Process Patterns - Goals

Understand customer’s business requirements

Understand the “Why” and “Who”

Understand the intent and value

Understand the Output

Team delivers complete feature


Key Process Patterns - Collaboration


Key Process Patterns - Examples

Requirements - Don’t provide full and unambiguous context

Don’t have Yes/No answers in your example

Ask for alternate way for validation

Avoid making up your own data

Avoid temptation to explore all possibility


Key Process Patterns - Refining



Don’t create workflow like descriptions

Don’t get trapped in user interface details

Show and lets the user understand

Refined Examples = Acceptance criteria for delivery




Key Process Patterns - Automation

Plan for automation upfront

Don’t delegate automation towards the end

Avoid automating existing manual scripts

Automate along system boundaries with necessary context

Automated Specification = Executable Specification


Key Process Patterns - Automation


Key Process Patterns - Validation

Fix the most annoying thing, fix it and repeat

Simpler test doubles for external systems

Isolated environment and fully automated deployments

Look for ways for faster feedback

Don’t just disable failing tests


Key Process Patterns – Living Documentation

Don’t create long specifications

Avoid using technical concepts in tests

Base specification on personas

Evolve the ubiquitous language and use it consistently.

Organize based on functional areas


Implementing Specifications


Greenfield

Implement as part of the big process change

Use TDD as a first step towards Specifications

Follow the key process patterns


Existing Projects

Start with automated tests

Don’t talk process or jargon words

Don’t make test automation end goal

Our Focus - Collaboration and process-change

Executable specification in the same codebase


Gauge Progress


Gauge Progress


Take Away

Distributed teams - Necessary artifacts and re-use artifacts

One-time specification – Referred by stakeholders and team

Artifacts remain as living documents

Focus on collaboration and communication gap

More time on exploratory/business testing

Time-to-market availability


Case Studies


Case Studies


Tools

Twist - http://studios.thoughtworks.com/twist-agile-test-automation/ Cucumber – http://cukes.infoConcordion – http://www.concordion.orgFitNesse - http://fitnesse.orgJbehave - http://jbehave.orgGreenPepper: http://www.greenpeppersoftware.com. Robot Framework: http://www.robotframework.orgSpecFlow: http://www.specflow.orgTextTest: http://www.texttest.org

Contact us

Sathyan [email protected]

Shalabh [email protected]


References

① Specification by example and Manning the specification- Gojko Adzic

② Projects implemented SDD in real-time

Technology

Specifications for Enterprise Testing