Optimising Quality Assurance in an Agile World

Jonathan Pearson

Senior Solutions Consultant Original Software

Quick Poll

How Agile is your company?

All developments

Majority of projects

Piloting agile

R & D

No current plans

How is QA different in Agile?

Whole Team Approach

Continuous feedback

Automation

Respond to change

No documentation overheads

Collaboration

Agile QA landscape

Design Build Re-Factor

Plan

Review

Adapt

Continuous Validation and Feedback

Iteration

QA Strategy Application Quality Management

Quality trumps Quantity

Priority trumps Productivity

Elegant simplicity in design

Customer Collaboration

Quality Assurance Overview

Inspection

Big Picture View

Outside Collaboration

TDD

Pair-Programming

Continuous Integration

Re-Align User Stories

Manage Test Assets

Maintain Automation

1 - Pitfalls when introducing Agile

Lack of training & preparation

Inadequate management tools

» Waterfall centric e.g. QC

» Designed for developers only

» Needs to be flexible as the processes adapt

» Instant position information e.g. burndown

2 - Pitfalls when introducing Agile

Inadequate Regression Testing

» Very difficult to do manually

» Often done outside the iteration

» Lack of coverage leads to technical debt

» Slows velocity

3 - Pitfalls when introducing Agile

Quick Poll

How do you currently carry out regression

testing for your Agile project?

Within a sprint

After a sprint

Regression testing is carried out by a separate team

We don’t do any regression testing

Geographic Dislocation

» Collaboration can be difficult

» Not conducive to the ‘Whole Team’ approach

» More documentation often required

4 - Pitfalls when introducing Agile

Compliance & Audit

» Needs can oppose goals of agile

» Specific quality gates may be required

» Audit documentation often required

5 - Pitfalls when introducing Agile

So what's the best way to start?

AGILE!

Set Expectations

Sequential to Parallel

Dev Test Business

Stepping to (agile) Heaven

Manual Testing

Why so manual?

Why so slow?

Repetition,

repetition,

repetition …

Manumation

Developer speed

Re-tests

Education

Pre-requisite for

agile regression

Why Automate?

Short cycle times

Regression testing in sprints?

Multiple configurations

Reduce technical debt

Regression, But When?

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Regression

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 In

Sprint

Release

Trains

Full Automation

Low emotional debt

Adaptable

In AND after sprint

Agile Testing Best Practice Poster

http://www.origsoft.com/contact/

Questions?

www.origsoft.com