1/15/2014 Agile Testing Method Simplified |Software Testing Times - Tutorials, QTP, Manual Testing Automation Testing, Load Runner

http://www.softwaretestingtimes.com/2010/04/agile-testing-method-simplified.html 1/4

- Best Blog on Software Testing. Here you can find the best articles on Software Testing, Automation Testing and Manual Testing.

Software Testing Times - Tutorials, QTP, ManualTesting Automation Testing, Load Runner

Home Software Testing Suite Beginners Guide to Software Testing ISTQB, ISEB, CSTE QTP Portal QTP Tutorials Disclaimer

Agile Testing Method Simplified

Sponsored Links:

Subscribe the QA and Software Testing Newsletter | Post Your Testing Queries

Article for newbie who want to know what is agile, how

agile works, how agile testing methodology is different

from traditional methodologies and what are the

challenges in agile.

Today’s trend in Software Development is racing towards

achieving Targets, Quality and Customer Satisfaction

within a limited time frame. This is mostly because the

Business Scenario in today’s world is different from what

it used to be, a few years ago. Most of the Product

Development companies are now adopting a new age

concept called “Agile Methodology” for the Software

Development Life Cycle.

Software Testing has been a prime focus ever since the IT

Industry has realized the importance of Quality of

Deliverables, no matter what methodology we follow with the Software Development. However, since

the Software Testing is a part of the Business Model, the Testing process also needs to change

accordingly. Needless to say, we have so called “Agile Testing” as a result of such a Business

Model.

Introduction to Agile Testing

While the given application under test is still evolving depending upon the customer needs, the

mindset of the end user and the current market condition, it is highly impractical to go for the usual

standard SDLC Models like Water Fall, V&V Model etc. Such models are most suitable for the

Applications that are stable and non-volatile. The concept of “Time-To-Market” is the key word in

today’s IT Business that compels the Software vendors to come up with new strategies to save the

time, resources, cut down the cost involved and at the same time, deliver a reliable product that

meets the user requirements. In this case, a reasonably good amount of end-to-end testing is carried

out and the product could be acceptable with known issues/defects at the end of an intermediate

release. These defects are harmless for the Application usability.

To adopt such a process in a systematic way, we have a new concept called Agile Methodology. This

methodology continuously strives to overcome the issues of dynamically changing requirements while

still trying to maintain a well-defined process.

The process is as follows:

1. The Customer prepares the Business Requirements and the Business Analyst or the Engineering

team reviews it. Ideally, the Quality Assurance/Testing team is also involved in reviewing these

requirements in order to be able to plan further stages accordingly.

2. During the Design and Implementation stages, the Engineering team writes User Stories and the

analysis of issues at various stages. The Customer reviews these on regular basis and updates the

Requirement specifications accordingly. The Testing team would follow up on regular basis at every

stage until a consolidated documentation is prepared. This is to ensure that the Customer, the

Engineering team and the Testing team are at the same page always and thus ensuring complete

test coverage.

3. While the Engineering team starts the implementation, the Testing team starts with test planning,

test strategies and test cases preparation. These would be properly documented and handed over to

the Customer and the Engineering team for review. This is to ensure the complete test coverage and

avoid unnecessary or redundant test cases.

4. As and when the Developer implements the code, the Testing team identifies if the application can

be built using this code for a quick testing. This is to identify the defects at the early stage so that the

developer can fix them in the next round on priority basis and continue with further development. This

iteration continues until the end of the code implementation. Once the testing cycle starts, the Test

team can now focus more on major test items such as Integration, Usability Testing and System

Testing etc.

Scope of testing an application

Agile ProjectSoftware

www.seedpm.com

Adjust your tool to yourprocesses Test now andenjoy the benefits!

Sumit: Brijesh Paul: Braidy Hunter: Amy White:

Follow theContributors ofthis blog

► QA Testing

► Agile

► Test Testing

► Test Testing

► User Testing

► Web Testing

► Web Testing

► It Testing

► Test Tools

Privacy Policy

Follow @testingconcepts 6,193 follow ers

Search this website with more than 400

testing topics

Search

Didn't find your topic?

Test Automation Eventwww.stpcon.com

Is test automation right for your

software? Find out at STPCon

► 2014 (1)

► 2013 (6)

► 2012 (11)

► 2011 (34)

▼ 2010 (159)

► November (3)

► October (7)

► September (2)

► August (5)

► July (10)

► June (14)

Blog Archive

1/15/2014 Agile Testing Method Simplified |Software Testing Times - Tutorials, QTP, Manual Testing Automation Testing, Load Runner

http://www.softwaretestingtimes.com/2010/04/agile-testing-method-simplified.html 2/4

SPONSORED LINKS

The Testing team knows the complexity involved and it is accepted by the customer that the software

development and/or the enhancements and hence the testing is a continuous process. Testing of the

application at a black box level would suffice in order to identify the issues and raise the defects by

the Testing team. The application continues to evolve until it reaches the stage of final acceptance.

Hence the scope of testing would continue to evolve as per the Customer needs.

Process followed at various stages in the product life cycle

Every intermediate release of the product would be divided into two short cycles, usually of the

duration of 40 days each. Each cycle would be executed in the following stages. The roles and

responsibilities of every individual and the team are clearly defined for each stage.

- Design Specifications: The Testing team’s efforts would focus on performing any tool or process

improvements and reviewing, understanding, and contributing to the nascent specifications.

- Implementation: While the Engineering/Development team is implementing the code, Testers would

develop complete Testing Plan and Test Sets (set of test cases) for each of the features included in

the cycle. Engineering features must be included; they would likely require some level of collaboration

with the engineering feature developer. All Test Sets should be ready to execute by the end of

implementation period of the respective cycle. After Test Set preparation, calculate the time

estimation and prioritization for the Test Set execution based on the complexity and expected

execution time for each test suite.

- While the test execution time estimation is notoriously difficult, this number should provide the

Customer with a starting point for benchmarking.

- Testing/QA: Test Set execution, raising defects and follow up with the Engineering Team. End-to-

end validation of the defects. Focus simultaneously on improving the quality of test cases. Watching

out for and adding new cases as testing proceeds. Testing the software end-to-end to discover

regressions and subtle systemic issues. Learning to focus more on using the time available to

uncover the largest number of and most important bugs. Any deviation from the estimated time should

be communicated across well in advance, so that the schedule can be worked upon depending upon

the priority of the pending tasks. If there are certain issues or test cases blocking due to unknown

errors, they would be differed until the beginning of next Testing/QA Cycle.

- Before acceptance: Follow up on ad-hoc requests/ changes in requirements on a regular basis,

besides trying to complete the defined tasks.

Looking at various broad areas of testing of a complex application, the system structure, and the

depth of functionality implemented and the level of complexity, the complete end-to-end Test

Execution within a limited time frame would be next to impossible with any standard SDLC Model

available. The Product/application involves a good deal of learning of how and when to use the

application and requires that the end user know the functionality of various modules prior to

constructing a User defined model (UDM) for his Business purpose or even for testing.

The testing wouldn’t be 100% complete in this case before the finished product reaches the hands of

the end user. This is true especially when the target audience and its system structure are unknown.

Different users have their own set of ideas and unique problems. Given this fact, it is hard to say that

it is 100% bug free software when it reaches the customer. Hence, taking into account the

constraints involved in using the standard SDLC Models, it is worth adopting an approach such as

Agile Testing, which is more suitable for the dynamically changing requirements.

Context Driven Testing and Rapid Testing:

This type of testing is what usually the Agile Testers incorporate. Context Driven testing is the one

where the test scenarios are not known before hand. It mostly comes from the context in which the

application is being executed. In our case, it is constructing the UDMs based on a given use case

from the targeted end user and test it for the scenarios that are explained by his system

configuration. It also includes constructing the UDMs based on any trouble-shooting discussion

arising out of defects pointed out during the Customer acceptance and testing.

Rapid Testing is a process of defining our own strategies to test the Software, not necessarily

following any specific Process or a Model. It focuses mainly on identifying the defects as quickly as

possible rather than focusing on the end user requirements.

Heuristic approach is used in such cases. The tester uses his common sense and previous work

experience to test the application at various levels in order to figure out where the application stands.

by Venkata Nagesh Gandikote

References: http://www.testing.com/agile

Online Documentation for Agile Testing and Rapid Testing:

Agile Testing Challenges

Rapid Software Testing

Reasons for Agile Testing methodology to test an Application

Web Load Testing Toolwww.neotys.com/Get_NeoLoad

Easy, Realistic tests in 10 minutes Download Free 30 Day Trial Now

► May (16)

▼ April (99)

Choosing right scriptingtechnique/Framework for A...

Selenium for Functional testingof web application...

Types of Software errors andbugs | Most Common So...

Measuring Software testeffectiveness

HP WinRunner exam HP0-M12sample questions

Step by Step guide to Test CaseDevelopment

Software Testing Techniques

Test Design Techniques

Difference between Test Planand Test Strategy | D...

Tricky Software testing Terms

SQL For Testers – Part 2

V Model to W Model | W Modelin SDLC Simplified

Selenium Interview Questions

Software Testing Checklist -Major Areas of Testin...

CSTE Sample Papers | CSTESample Questions

Asnwers to advanced softwareTesting Interview Que...

Advanced Software TestingInterview Questions – Pa...

Tips for Software TestingResume

Bug triage Meeting Process

How and When Testing Starts

Requirement Specificationdocument Review Guidelin...

Role of a tester in defectprevention and defect d...

HP QTP Certification HP0-M016Exam Sample Question...

QTP Sample paper - Part 14 -**** Mostly asked que...

QTP Sample paper - Part 13 -**** Mostly asked que...

QTP Sample paper - Part 12 -**** Mostly asked que...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification HP0-M16Practice Questions - Set...

QTP Certification PracticeQuestions - Set 4

QTP Certification PracticeQuestions - Set 3

QTP Certification PracticeQuestions - Set 2

QTP Certification PracticeQuestions - Set 1

1/15/2014 Agile Testing Method Simplified |Software Testing Times - Tutorials, QTP, Manual Testing Automation Testing, Load Runner

http://www.softwaretestingtimes.com/2010/04/agile-testing-method-simplified.html 3/4

Newer Post Older PostHome

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

No comments yet

Add a comment as Chaudhary B.S.

Do not want to miss any Software Testing tips and latest updates? Subscribe the

Software Testing Newsletter and get effective software testing tips

Enter your Email below:

Subscribe me!

+1 Recommend this on Google

When to Stop Testing | TestingCompletion Criteria...

Game Testing Tips andConsiderations

QTP Descriptive Programming -How to get number of...

Tutorial Database Testing usingSQL | SQL for Test...

Concept of Complete Testing |Exhaustive testing i...

Testing Limitations

Practical interview questions onSoftware Testing ...

Descriptive Programming in QTP

QTP: Object Repository,Descriptive Programming an...

Equivalence Class PartitioningSimplified

Gray Box Testing

White Box Testing

Test Design Techniques

Methods of Black box Testing

Black Box Testing

Fault, Error and Failure

What Is Software Testing?

Why is Software TestingImportant?

Defect Density

Mercury Quality Center InterviewQuestions

HP0 M15 Quality CenterCertification Questions

Effective Handbook forImplementing Test Strategie...

Defining a Test Strategy

Creating a Test Strategy

Test Strategy

A simple approach to SoftwareTest Estimation

Software Testing EffortEstimation

Estimation Guidelines forTesting Projects

Software Testing Post ProjectReviews

Traceability Matrix from SoftwareTesting perspect...

Selecting a Software testingTool | Testing Tools ...

Security Testing – SecureSoftware Development Lif...

Unit Testing - Points to take care

The Testing Mindset

Practical Test Reporting

Guide to Effective Test StatusReporting and Metri...

Golden Rules for Bug Reporting

Function Testing Step by Step –Part 2

Functional Testing Step by Step– Part 1

V-model is the basis ofstructured testing

Agile Testing Method Simplified

1/15/2014 Agile Testing Method Simplified |Software Testing Times - Tutorials, QTP, Manual Testing Automation Testing, Load Runner

http://www.softwaretestingtimes.com/2010/04/agile-testing-method-simplified.html 4/4

Unscripted TestingTechniques/Approaches

SQL interview questions forTesters

Web Testing basic Concepts |Get/Post methods and ...

Testing with Visual Studio TeamSystem 2010 (VS 20...

Testing with Visual Studio TeamSystem - Static Co...

Testing with Visual Studio TeamSystem - Manual Te...

Load Testing with Visual StudioTeam System 2010

Metric Based Approach forRequirements Gathering a...

Requirements Reliability Metrics

Testing Reliability Matrix

Checklist for Data WarehouseTesting

White box testing Simplified

Unit test framework – AnIntroduction

Guide to Metrics Collection inSoftware Testing

Art of Test case writing

Why start testing Early?

Golden Rules for SoftwareTesting

Disclaimer / Contact Us

QTP Tutorials

Software Testing Suite

Software Testing Tutorials forBeginners

Software Testing CertificationsISTQB, ISEB, CSTE ...

► March (1)

► February (2)

Awesome Inc. template. Powered by Blogger.