{"id":508,"date":"2011-10-10T09:35:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T07:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/?p=508"},"modified":"2024-03-15T15:18:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T14:18:50","slug":"agile-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/agile\/agile-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Agile Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisa Crispin is an Agile testing practitioner and coach as well as the author \u00a0of the book Agile Testing. In this article she explains the nuts and bolts of Agile testing to Kristoffer Nordstr\u00f6m of Softhouse. <\/em><\/h4>\n

Lisa Crispin has a favorite definition \u00a0of Agile which she often paraphrases when people wonder what the Agile testing buzz is all about. It\u2019s from Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, who wrote something to the effect that \u201d[Agile testing means] delivering production-ready business value frequently (at least monthly) at a sustainable pace.”<\/p>\n

\"agile<\/a><\/p>\n

The key is that we can\u2019t work at a \u2019sustainable pace\u2019 if we don\u2019t master core practices \u00a0such as continuous integration, specification by example, test-driven development, refactoring, and all the other techniques that allow us to keep technical debt at a manageable level,\u201d Lisa says. \u201dThe big \u00a0difference with Agile is that we recognize that testing is not a \u2018phase\u2019 (again, I am \u00a0paraphrasing Elisabeth). It is an integral part of software development, along \u00a0with coding. Therefore, the whole development team, including programmers, \u00a0testers, BAs, UX designers, DBAs, system administrators, everyone who helps deliver the software, takes responsibility for quality and for making sure all testing activities are \u00a0complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Lisa Crispin sees it, the fundamental difference between traditional testing and agile testing is \u00a0that in traditional phased and gated projects, testing is \u2013 as she puts it \u2013 \u201dalmost an afterthought.\u201d Various specialists gather requirements, produce a design, write a test plan, \u00a0write the code, and then \u2013 with what small amount of time is left \u2013 a \u201dQA department\u201d tests.<\/p>\n

Shortening the feedback \u00a0loop<\/h2>\n

The result is that the feedback loop \u00a0is very long \u2013 weeks or months. \u00a0When bugs are found in the \u201ctest \u00a0phase\u201d, they\u2019re entered into a defect \u00a0tracking system, perhaps a review \u00a0board prioritizes them, and they may or may not get fixed. \u201dAgile teams focus on shortening that feedback loop,\u201d, Lisa says. \u201dWe start by getting examples of desired and undesired system behavior from \u00a0stakeholders. We turn these into \u00a0automated tests, \u2019living documentation\u2019, which in turn lets us know \u00a0what code to write and when we are \u00a0done. We do all the same types of \u00a0testing as in traditional projects, all four \u2018quadrants\u2019 in the Agile Testing \u00a0Matrix, including exploratory testing and all the \u2018ilities\u2019.\u201d \u201dOne difference is that these testing activities are a team effort, with \u00a0constant collaboration between testers, programmers, customers and \u00a0everyone else on the development team,\u201d Lisa continues. \u201dAnother difference is that we start out with the goal of zero defects, and as soon \u00a0as we find a problem, we fix it and make sure it can\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing role<\/h2>\n

The way the role of the tester changes when they become an Agile tester is often a huge mindset shift for traditional testers.<\/p>\n

\u201dI myself was guilty of a \u2019quality police\u2019 mentality back in my waterfall days, even though I collaborated with both programmers and product folks throughout the project life cycle. I was the one who decided when the software was ready to release. In hindsight, that was crazy!\u201d<\/p>\n

When Lisa started her first XP team, \u00a0it was a shock for her to realize that it was her job to help the customer define external quality \u2013 not judge it herself. \u00a0She has also observed how hard it is for traditional testers to get away from the traditional view, which is \u2019Don\u2019t test that \u00a0code until it has met all the exit criteria, or you\u2019ll have to test it more than once, and that\u2019s wasteful\u2019. \u201dWorking in small increments means we may test the same code over and over,\u201d she says, \u201dbut the value of short feedback loops offsets that cost, and we can automate a lot of that testing as well.\u201d Lisa points out that testers aren\u2019t used to working directly either with the development team or with the customer team. They need a lot of time and support to learn how to do this.<\/p>\n

Good testers a help \u00a0for customers<\/h2>\n

Lisa has observed that many people have started to think that testers aren\u2019t needed anymore, due to the fact that we now have Agile developers doing automated unit testing and even functional testing getting continuous feedback.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lisa Crispin has worked as a tester on Agile teams for the past ten years, and enjoys sharing her experiences via writing, presenting, teaching and participating in agile testing communities around the world. Lisa was named one of the 13 Women of Influence in testing by Software Test & Performance magazine. For more about Lisa\u2019s work, visit www.lisacrispin.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201dWhen I was a tester on a traditional team that did not automate unit tests, I spent 80 % of my time finding unit-level bugs. I never had time to do the important exploratory testing that would identify serious issues or gaps in features. My current team has automated 100 % \u00a0of our regression tests. We know within minutes if a check-in breaks a unit test, and within 45 minutes whether any of the higher-level functional and GUI tests have found a regression failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Crispin praises the luxury of time to be able to make her own unique contributions to the product. In her view, good testers are good at helping customers articulate examples of the behavior they want, turning those into acceptance tests, and keeping an eye on the \u2019big picture\u2019 as the team delivers in small increments and short iterations. \u201dExploratory testing is a skill that few programmers I know have mastered,\u201d Lisa says. \u201dCollaborating with programmers to get regression tests automated frees our time to make these essential \u00a0contributions.\u201d So, in summary: what are the benefits from adopting agile testing practices? \u201dWhen the whole team takes responsibility for quality, and adheres to the mantra \u2019no story is done until it\u2019s tested\u2019, they will keep technical debt to a manageable level, deliver the features the customer actually wants, and keep defects out of production. The whole team reaps the intrinsic rewards of continually improving and doing their best work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisa Crispin is an Agile testing practitioner and coach as well as the author of the book Agile Testing. In this article she explains the nuts and bolts of Agile testing to Kristoffer Nordstr\u00f6m of Softhouse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,54,83,55],"tags":[18,6,56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leanmagazine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}