Agile Testing in the Real World Moving Beyond Theory to Achieve Practicality [NEED PICTURE HERE]

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Agile Testing in the Real World Moving Beyond Theory to Achieve Practicality [NEED PICTURE HERE]"

Abraham Brown
5 years ago
Views:

1 Moving Beyond Theory to Achieve Practicality [NEED PICTURE HERE]

2 There are lots of books, articles, and webinars about how great Agile is However, those often describe purist approaches that adhere to the Agile Manifesto This webinar isn t about that pure world, but rather about what happens when Agile theory meets the real world In the real world, companies are coming up with interesting and creative ways to adapt Agile practices This creates various opportunities, challenges, risks, and benefits for testing and quality In this webinar, we examine those Copyright (c) RBCS Page 2

3 What Does Agile Look Like? Copyright (c) RBCS Page 3

4 Agile Is the Opposite of What? Copyright (c) RBCS Page 4

5 Agile Test Tools Good stuff, mostly free x-unit Jenkins Cucumber Ruby Selenium Fitnesse Plus various static code analysis (e.g., Crap4J) and code coverage tools Not all is good Jira and Rally are not designed by or for testers Often used as bug and test management tools Copyright (c) RBCS Page 5

6 Tests completed Agile Test Metrics Risks addressed (in risk-based testing) Bugs found and fixed Some organizations don t measure bugs during sprints (loss of visibility) Velocity of sprint (user stories completed) Copyright (c) RBCS Page 6

7 Agile Testing Challenges Volume and speed of change Remaining effective in short iterations Increased regression risk Inconsistent or inadequate unit testing Poor, changing, and missing test oracles A shifting test basis Meeting overload Over-commitment in the sprints Sprint team siloing The Agile hype cycle and high expectations For more, check out my recorded webinar on this topic Copyright (c) RBCS Page 7

8 Agile Testing Opportunities Automated unit testing Static code analysis Code coverage Continuous integration Automated functional testing Requirements (user story) reviews Test (acceptance criteria) reviews Reasonable workload Control of technical debt (via fix bugs first ) For more, check out my recorded webinar on this topic Copyright (c) RBCS Page 8

9 Testing in Agilish Lifecycles One RBCS client has a train lifecycle Train never stops Releases are never delayed Seven week overlapping cycle (three week releases) Is this Agile? Purist vs. pragmatist Copyright (c) RBCS Page 9

10 Agile Testing for Systems-of-Systems System testing of each iteration System integration testing by separate team Stabilization sprint at the end to fix bugs Is this Agile? Purist vs. pragmatist Copyright (c) RBCS Page 10

11 Testing for Customized Enterprise Software Copyright (c) RBCS Page 11

12 Agile on Outsourced Projects Some Agile founders (e.g., Alistair Cockburn) say collocation is essential However, many of our clients are doing a lot of outsourced testing and development Some of these clients are trying to use Agile Some are succeeding, some are not An on-site point-of-contact is key to success Copyright (c) RBCS Page 12

13 Tester Skill Implications of Agile In the United States, the trend is towards requiring programming skill in testers This trend seems to be expanding worldwide This is especially important on Agile projects Not only is programming skill needed, but test automation skills are also essential Another important issue is personality Extroverts generally like Agile because of the emphasis on talking over analysis Introverts often find Agile harder to adapt to, and some report feeling bulldozed by extroverts Copyright (c) RBCS Page 13

14 Agile Test Team Organization Options Fully embedded, testers in each sprint team Fully independent, testers assigned at the end of each iteration Matrixed, testers assigned throughout sprint, but part of independent team Let s examine each of these options Copyright (c) RBCS Page 14

15 Fully Embedded Copyright (c) RBCS Page 15

16 Fully Independent Copyright (c) RBCS Page 16

17 Matrixed Copyright (c) RBCS Page 17

18 Agile and Quality Does Agile result in greater quality? Jury is still out The use of proven (long before the Agile Manifesto) best practices is promising However, the tendency not to measure defects during sprints obscures the situation Some report better quality (e.g., Jones), but metrics are limited Some of the proof by assertion in this area is unhelpful to conducting an objective discussion Copyright (c) RBCS Page 18

19 Conclusions Agile lifecycles are distinct from sequential lifecycles, in ways that affect testing and quality A variety of test tools are available for Agile (and non-agile) teams Metrics programs may be taking a step backward in Agile projects Agile lifecycles create testing challenges and opportunities There are many different and successful implementations of Agile lifecycles Opinions differ on whether Agile works on outsourced projects, but many are trying Agile lifecycles have strong implications for tester skills Carefully choose organizational options for Agile test teams Agile s effect on quality remains unclear, but anecdotal reports are promising Copyright (c) RBCS Page 19

20 To Contact RBCS For almost twenty years, RBCS has delivered consulting, outsourcing and training services to clients looking to improve their software and hardware testing and quality. Employing the industry s most experienced and recognized consultants, RBCS trains and improves test groups, tests products, and provides expert test staff for hundreds of clients worldwide. Ranging from Fortune 20 companies to startups, RBCS clients save time and money through improved product development, decreased tech support calls, improved corporate reputation and more. To learn more about RBCS, visit. Address: RBCS, Inc Beck Road Bulverde, TX USA Phone: +1 (830) info@rbcs-us.com Web: Copyright (c) RBCS Page 20

Advanced Software Testing Testing Code with Static Analysis

Advanced Software Testing Testing Code with Static Analysis Advanced Software Testing A series of webinars, this one excerpted from Advanced Software Testing: V3, a book for technical test analysts, programmers,