no such thing called agile testing
TRANSCRIPT
There is no such thing called Agile Testing
A keynote address in an Agile Testing conference
Shrini KulkarniFeb 2017
Agile
Height of Tolerance and inclusivity …..
One Team
DevTest BA
QA /ProcessSDET/SET
One Team
Once upon
a time …..
Time Changes …..
What is the profile of Tester in Agile?
Is it not same as requirement analysis by testers and testability check?
When and why on the earth we should have part team approach? Who created these partitions ?
why and when on the earth this responsibility is vested on one team ?
Faster Feedback - All of a sudden – the word feedback has become very important Why now ?
Every one in the team is responsible for quality –
Whole Team approach ….
Help business stakeholder to write testable user stories and acceptance criteria –
We do not have any testers in our
Team. Everyone Tests .. BUT
So many words in Agile world that contain “Test”
TEST FIRST
TEST EARLY
TEST LAST
TEST DRIVEN
LEFT SHiFT TESTINGTEST ALONG – TEST WITH DEVELOPERS
Continuous TESTING
What testers in Agile projects do ?
Exploratory TESTINGAcceptance TEST driven
=============BDDSBEMDDFDD
DDD ?
Anything that everyone in the team (can) (should) (would) DO
Identifying Agile …..
&
Products of Strong Culture and Rituals - Stereotypes
Stereotype Agile Tester
• Manual Testing is bad …. 100% tests should be automated
• All testing is some sort of extension of programming activity –anything left if at all – it is exploratory testing.
• More worried about stuff that others do than testing
• Eats cucumber Salad - Executable requirements …
• Discontinuous integration ?
• Is a good Chef - DevOps
• Someone who is very conscious of his/her T-shirt Size
So WHAT ?
If there is nothing called Agile testing … why are we here…. Listening to you ?
There are some beautiful ideas ….
• Dev Test Pairing• Continuous Integration• Agile Pyramid• Light Documentation of Testing artifacts• Unit Testing• Agile Quadrant• BDD/Gherkin Stories• Embrace Change• SHOW and TELL – Value of Seeing• Open source tools repository
Anything else ….. That is good in Agile ?
Independent to Interdependent
Breaking functional Silos
What successful testers do….
• Learn technology, programming – write code, install software, create test data
• Practice testing (doing testing)
• Work with developers
• Learn business domains
• Talk to customers, prod support
• Read requirement documents
• Support activities for the team if time permits
• Dissolve walls between teams
Programming | Automation | Networks | Internet | Database | Mobile | SDLC | Domain | Unit Testing | Design
Cognitive Skills
• Questioning• Critical thinking• Imagination• Modeling/Design• Skepticism• Math/Logic/Stats
People Skills
• Persuasion• Communication• Delegation
Tester Role when came into being as distinct from that of a programmer – Skills looked some what similar to this.
Agile did not change to a great extent.
Agile made some of the broader skills mandatory
Ability to work outside core area
Specia
lty a
nd
Key
Expertise
Culture change we are seeking to make Agile truly work WILL NOT
HAPPEN
A Prophecy ….
Why …. ?• Humans … [ we seek Processes, Tools, Best Practices ]
• Humans are unpredictable, often lazy, Greedy …
• We are never happy …
• With Humans - Can’t Scale …
• With Humans – Can’s make continuous profits
• Yet we see AI as future when have not understood intelligence fully• Can you explain why many intelligent people do silly and unimaginable things
• But you can’t take humans out of equation …
You can change culture in which Agile Truly – Take humans out
Some Takeaway for everyone ….
Managers …• Seek people with real skills• Do what works in your
context• Bring Diversity in the team
All others ….
• Bit of critical thinking and understanding history of ideas helps
• Refocus your efforts on delivering value
• Have fun
Testers With Agile Title …..• Improve testing skills• Do not get locked to specific
toolset or methodology• Get involved in the team• Kill the tiltle
Testers Without Agile Title …..• Improve testing skills• Develop Broader skills that
make you acceptable in variety of contexts
• You are fine with out being called as “Agile Tester”
Keep your Vigil On …..
“ This …. should serve as a reminder to us all... Talk about the virtues of what we know and avoid bashing that which we do not.
You obviously see Agile as a threat, you should blog about that! ”
Thank you
http://shrinik.blogspot.com
@shrinik