Agile Day Conference

Evolving to agile testing - The Journey

by Brijesh Prabhakar !25 July 2014

Challenges facing the testing community

Source: www.versionone.com

Trend towards greater adoption of Agile Lack of agile focus in testing

Current state of testing

`

The Assembly Line in the Factory Model

Vision Requirements, Plan, Design

Business Validation

Realised Value

Change

Chang

e

Change

Change

Regulation

Business!Scenario

Change in Vision

Budget, Time! Constraints

Code / Develop

Test

Factory Model

Change is Costly, Time Consuming and Consensus Driven

The Factory Floor: Testing Team

`Code / Develop

Test

The testing factory model characterised by:

❖ Specialisation of testing skills / roles

❖ Functions independent of dev and business

❖ Interpretation of Requirements drive testing

❖ Cost based RoI for Automation

❖ Metrics focussed on productivity, quality, coverage

❖ Team mainly composed for “Manual” Testers

❖ Automation, Performance testing skills are niche

❖ Team is usually prepared for the last minute “Sprint”

❖ Work is more hectic towards the end

Test Lead / Manager

Manual Testers

Automation Manual Testers

Future proofing Testing

Effecting the Change - Steps towards Evolution

Agile Principles / Manifesto Change required by “Traditional” Testers

Focus on useful software - Customer Satisfaction From defects to what the business values

Embrace and welcome changes to requirements From “being the last to know” to motivated change agents

Working software delivered frequently From discrete testing cycles to continuous testing

Cooperation between business and developers From independent testing to collaborative testing

Co-located teams Distributed agile teams have become a norm - get used to it

Progress measured by working software From measuring productivity and defects to story based metrics

Sustainable progress at a constant pace From the last minute dash to testing everyday

Simplicity and art of maximising work not done Structuring of test deliverables

Unlearning - the tough bit!

Skillsets• The agile mindset can be an acquired skill. Incorporate Agile training prior to

project start. Invest in continuous learning • Re-purpose purely manual testers to contribute to Technology, Automation, etc

Tools & Techniques

• Adopt techniques like Model Based Testing, OATs, Virtualisation etc • Feature testing rather than audit approach

Adaptability• Continuous and evolving estimations as opposed to rigid initial estimates • Testing should be part of change initiation process rather than a consumer of such

information

Measurement• Move away from testing productivity based metrics • Focus on metrics that indicate customer acceptance, test automation, product

quality, coverage

Automation• Transition to Time based RoI from Cost based RoI • Transition from Regression Automation to Progressive Automation • All testers (and developers) should contribute towards automation

Repurposing testing for an Agile world

❖ Indian IT has over 120,000 testers today; a vast majority of them are new to Agile

❖ Entry level training for testers needs to incorporate Agile methodologies in their curriculum

❖ Greater exposure to technology for testers