A Testers Role On Agile Projects - Janet Gregory

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Agile Tester DaysBelgium

September, 2009

Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc.With material from Lisa Crispin

A Tester’s Roleon an

Agile Project

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Copyright 2009: Janet Gregory, DragonFire

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Introduction - Me

First agile team – 2000

Currently – coaching, testing

Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testersand Agile Teams; Addison Wesley 2009

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Topics

What about you !!!!A very little bit about agileChallengesWhat is agile testingLife of a tester during an iterationWhy and how testing must “keep up”Continual improvement

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Agile is a term to describe methodologies that:

have short iterationsencourage active customer participationdemand whole team collaborationtest features as they are codeddeliver business value at regular intervalsadapt their processes based on feedback

…and so on………….

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Blurred Lines Between Roles

Agile developers are “test infected”Agile testers and programmers collaborateAgile testers and customers collaborate“Whole Team” responsibility for testingEveryone understands the business

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What challenges do you see foragile testers?


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Exercise

Break into groups

Discuss your current project or previousprojectsWhat type of problems is your teamexperiencing?Choose the top 3 problems you would liketo solve

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Copyright 2009 Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

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Some Common Challenges

Separate test teamNo common languageFear – loss of identityTesting always at the endOrganizational cultureDon’t know enough about agile conceptsLack technical and tool skillsPhysical limitations – work space

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What is Agile Testing?

Testers are part of the team

Drives development with tests

Work with customers to define acceptancetests for each story / feature

Provides continuous feedback to the team

Provides constructive skepticismTests each story as it is complete

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Copyright 2007: Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

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Management Expectations

Phased approach… 90% done… until it’s too lateAgile – new expectations

Make quality the priority (not speed!)Let the team solve problemsGive team time to learn / slack time

Tips / TechniquesProvide visibility – raise risks earlyStress adaptive rather than predictiveStress ‘getting business value’ regularlyBuild credibility / trust by proving it works

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The agile tester’s mindset .....

Instead of–We’re here to break the software!

Think–What can we do to help deliver

the software successfully?

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Be involved, question, be proactive

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Whole Team Approach

Anyone can pick up a testing taskRun automated regression testsregularly

Continuous buildMinimally – daily!

Otherwise ……….

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Discuss ....

Instead of saying NO,or being the gatekeeper

Be the information provider sobusiness can make the decisions


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Copyright 2009 Janet Gregory, DragonFire

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Change how we think about testing …

Focus on the 'why' we test

Change the way we thinknot about the whennot about the how

white box, black box

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The Agile Testing QuadrantsBrian Marick introduced the conceptCan be used to ensure we accomplish all goals

Q1 - Technology-facing tests that support the teamQ2 - Business-facing tests that support the teamQ3 - Business-facing tests that critique the productQ4 - Technology-facing tests that critique the product

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Test Approach - The Agile Way

Project Initiation Get an understanding of the project

Participate in estimating stories Create Test PlanRelease Planning

Each Iteration1

….X

Write and execute story testsWrite and execute new functional test cases

Pair test with other testers, developersAutomate new functional test cases

Run automated regression test cases

Perform Load TestComplete Regression Test

Perform UATPerform Mock Deploy

Participate in Release Readiness

System Test /End Game

Participate in Release to ProdParticipate in Retrospectives

Release to Prod/Support

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Project InitiationPurpose – high level understanding of projectQuestions to ask:

Are other teams involved?Will we need special resources?

Test environments, tools, peopleWhat other risks are there?

May be asked for 10,000 ft estimatesRequired to determine cost/benefit

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Release Planning – The Purpose

Understand the “Conditions of Satisfaction”Criteria to gauge success of the project

Functionality, quality, time???

Want to get a good idea of relative ‘size’

Plan what might be possible

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What do you think a tester’s role isduring release planning ....

If anything?


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Release Planning – Tester’s Role

Sizing of storiesthink about impacts to system

Ask questionsthat may impact the ‘bigness’ of the storyto uncover hidden assumptionssuch as ‘what if?’, or “what happens if?”

Not the time for detailsCreate a project “test plan”

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Preparing for Iteration - Stories

Be proactive - preplanningSpecifications workshops – Gojko Adzic

Help customer achieve ‘advance clarity’on stories

Customers speak with “one voice”Testable storiesSteel threads

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Use Pictures to Clarify


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Learning to Collaborate

Groups again....

Step 1 – Draw your vision of the perfect ....

Step 2 – Collaborate to create one commonvision that each of you can live with.

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Copyright 2009 Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

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During Iteration Planning

• Find hidden assumptions – question assumptions• Ask “why?” Ask “what if?”• Define and estimate testing tasks• Ask what other tasks are required• Define high level story tests or examples

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Testable StoriesGoal – steel thread, thin slice, critical path

Work towards an end-to-end first cutWhat is absolutely requiredKeep it simple

Allows whole team to work togetherGives good basis for testingLater – add complexity / extras

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Drive Development - ATDD

ATDD (Acceptance Test Driven Development)Express the intent of the storyUse examplesDefines behavioursMaybe misbehavioursHelp the developers to understand what isexpected

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Acceptance Test ExerciseThe story…..

As an on-line shopper, I want to provide myshipping address when I check out so that myorder goes to the right location.

ConsiderLocations – countries?Misbehaviours?

What is the simplest thing we could do?

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When Coding Starts

Write detailed test cases from examplesMake them executable if possible

Write simple, happy path tests to automateShare them with the programmers

Once simple tests pass, write more test casesStart with happy pathThen move towards edge cases

Identify possible exploratory scenarios

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Testing/Coding: Don’t sit and wait!

Is any testable part of a story ready?Test with behind-the-GUI tool such as FIT?Or other harness to bypass GUI

Pair with programmersTest together before check-inShow them issuesAsk questionsBugs found here are cheap and easy to fix

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Testing/Coding: Collaboration

Pair with customersShow customer earlyDoes delivered feature meet expectation?

Other team members, e.g.Work with DBA to understand databaseWork with sys admin to get better messagingfrom continual build

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Exploratory Testing(Cem Kaner, James Bach, Jon Bach, Elisabeth Hendrickson

Simultaneous learning, test design and test executionApply heuristics and techniques in a disciplined wayDoing reveals more implications than thinkingLike putting together a jigsaw puzzleUse session based testing to

Time box your testingFocus your effortsRecord results

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Defects, Bugs or Features?

Acceptance testsDescribe desired behaviour

Defect reportsDescribe misbehaviour (Antony Marcano)

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Defect Tracking

An agile approach:Understand the problemDo what works for your teamFocus on goals: bug preventionStart simple, add as neededExplore alternatives

Let’s discuss - What do you do?

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Defect Management

Not necessary if you have zero toleranceDefect tracking system as knowledge base

Root cause analysis to prevent future bugsNecessary for distributed teamsProbably necessary if you have a legacy system

Look for trendsLots of bugs in one story is a smellDesign issue?

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Regression Testing

What does this have to do with agile?Risk?Confidence?

Takes time to get there!Can a regression cycle fit into an iteration?

Figure courtesy of Mountain Goat Software

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Wrap it up: Last Day

Whole team responsible for deliveringtested codeShow customers what you deliveredPotentially releasable productRetrospective

Might be combined with planning meeting

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Retrospective – Continuous Improvement

Solve problems as a teamIs there one single limiting factor?

something holding you backsomething causing a blown iteration

Action itemsFocus on 1 or 2 things to improveCreate task cards for future iteration

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So .....

Can it be done?


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What often happens instead?

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Mini-Waterfall

Testing at the end of the iteration

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Mini-Waterfall 2

Testing in the next iteration

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“Keeping Up”Understand team’s definition of “DONE”Stories need to be testableEstimate test tasks with development tasks

So the team understands the effortKeep track of “big picture”

Consider how each story affects rest of applicationDoes it affect other systems?Don’t forget end to end tests

Collaborate with customer for minimum successcriteria (the quality level)

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“Keeping Up” - AutomateAutomate all regression tests

Consider collaborative approaches such as FIT /FitNesse (Framework for Integrated Tests)

Consider ROI

Automate at lowest level possible

Automate time consuming tasksCalculations, parsing files…

Make time for exploratory testingInvolve customer team if possible

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What is The End Game?Examine Conditions of SatisfactionSystem TestingBug fixes – showstoppers onlyNo new codeUATImplement TrainingUpdate Support NeedsFinal Retrospective

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System TestingBusiness Users and Testers

do final manual GUI testingrun final Regression tests (automated &manual)

In some teams, the developers runload & performance testsstress tests

Sometimes an implementation teamtests installation or upgrade scripts

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User Acceptance TestingUAT gives customers confidence

Fully integrated with all systemsLooks like production; real data

TimingAfter all functionality is finished?Or during development

How can you help?Report your tests & resultsProvide risk information

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Deliverables for Customers

What can the customer’s life easier?What do you create already?

Acceptance tests, story testsWork flow diagrams, scenario testsAutomation – FIT/Fitnesse/Selenium type tests

What can give the customer confidenceTest resultsTest coverage

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The Agile Tester Role - ReviewGet moving! Be proactive!

Don’t sit and wait for things to come to youWho does what testing?

Understand the “whole-team” approachCollaboration is key

Customers/product owners/business expertsDevelopers, others

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Agile development rewards passion

Team values testers' contributions

Everyone is test-obsessed

Makes our job fun and rewarding

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What Can a Tester Do?

Be Proactive – Try new thingsDon’t sit and wait for things to come to youTake responsibility for your own personaldevelopment

Read booksJoin the yahoo testing group

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XP Tester Bill of Rights

You have the right to:bring up issues related to quality and process at any time.ask questions of customers and programmers and receivetimely answers.ask for and receive help from anyone on the project team,including programmers, managers and customers.make and update your own estimates for your own tasksand have these included in estimates for stories.the tools you need to do your job in a timely manner.expect your project team, not just yourself, to beresponsible for quality.

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52

Now AvailableAgile Testing: A Practical Guidefor Testers and Agile Teams

By Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

www.agiletester.ca

My contact info

www.janetgregory.cahttp://janetgregory.blogspot.com/Email: [email protected]

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http://www.agiletester.ca

http://www.janetgregory.ca

http://janetgregory.blogspot.com/

mailto:[email protected]



Resourcesagile-testing@yahoogroups.comwww.lisacrispin.comwww.testobsessed.comwww.testingreflections.comAgile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/Lisa Crispin and Tip House, Testing Extreme Programming,2002, Addison-WesleyMary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Lean SoftwareDevelopment, 2003, Addison-Wesleywww.mountaingoatsoftware.com – Mike Cohn’s web sitehttp://www.exampler.com - Brian Marick’s web site

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mailto:[email protected]

http://www.lisacrispin.com

http://www.testobsessed.com

http://www.testingreflections.com

http://agilemanifesto.org/

http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com

http://www.exampler.com-Brian

