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Agile Testing Days 2014 Keynote - Helping Testers Add Value on Agile Projects
The document discusses the challenges testers face in agile projects and emphasizes the importance of adding value by adapting to reality rather than idealized processes. It highlights the necessity for testers to enhance their skills, collaborate effectively, and ensure visibility in their testing efforts to survive and thrive in agile environments. Ultimately, it conveys a message of resilience and proactive engagement to contribute meaningfully within agile frameworks.
Agile Testing Days 2014 Keynote - Helping Testers Add Value on Agile Projects
- 1. 1 Helping Testers AddValue to Agile Projects Alan Richardson EvilTester.com @eviltester SeleniumSimplified.com JavaForTesters.com CompendiumDev.co.uk
- 2. 2 Warren Zevon (1947- 2003) “Ain't that pretty at all”, The Envoy, 1982
- 3. 3 We can getJaded & Disillusioned Well, I've seen all there is to see And I've heard all they have to say I've done everything I wanted to do . . . I've done that too Warren Zevon, “Ain't that pretty at all”, 1982 “ ”
- 4. 4 Reality doesn't matchour wants And it ain't that pretty at all. Ain't that pretty at all. “ ” Warren Zevon, “Ain't that pretty at all”, 1982
- 5. 5 We may nothave strategies to cope So I'm going to hurl myself against the wall 'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all “ ” Warren Zevon, “Ain't that pretty at all”, 1982
- 6. 6 Sometimes my job... I'vebeen to Paris And it ain't that pretty at all I've been to Rome Guess what? “ ” Warren Zevon, “Ain't that pretty at all”, 1982
- 7. 7 … the realworld is what it is And sometimes it ain't that pretty at all
- 8. 8 I help testerssurvive in Agile Projects ● …by working with 'reality' rather than an ideal ● ...by adding 'value' ● ...by becoming a viable part of the project The Transformers: All Hail Megatron, Volume 1, IDW Publishing
- 9. 9 Thank you for everything,Westley, good night now, I'll probably kill you in the morning. The Dread Pirate Roberts, as quoted by S. Morgenstern, in “The Princess Bride”, abridged by William Goldman for text and screen page 165, 1976, Pan Books Ltd ” “
- 10. 10 “I'm here tomake you look good”
- 11. 11 “I'm here tomake you look good” not
- 12. 12 “I'm here tomake you look good” not side-effect
- 13. 13 If you dothis automatically, then keep doing it, because you do it, but don't start thinking it adds value, or helps you fit in. Survival != Fitting In ● Lunching ● Raconteur ● Buying Doughnuts ● <insert fluffy people stuff> ● ...etc.
- 14. 14 Survival == AddingValue by Doing Testing Stuff ● Finding problems ● Checking Acceptance Criteria ● Testing ● Making your Test Coverage Visible ● Pairing on ATDD ● …etc.
- 15. 15 We survive whenwe learn to adapt to the System Of Development ...we already know how to work with the System Under Development The Transformers: All Hail Megatron, Volume 1, IDW Publishing
- 16. 16 “I would soonerwalk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall” Annie Edson Taylor, after surviving her Niagra Falls Waterfall Barrel Drop http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036008/1901-10-25/ed-1/seq-1/
- 17. 17 I Survived Waterfall ●By removing waste ● By responding to need, not want ● By exploring more ● By taking responsibility for my testing rather than conforming to 'the process'
- 18. 18 I must createa system. or be enslav'd by another Mans; I will not reason & compare: my business is to create William Blake, 1820 Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illbk.10&java=no “ ”
- 19. 19 I remember atime before I worked on an Agile Project ● Based on reading the hype: the books, the articles, etc. I sooooo wanted out of Waterfall. – … the utopia – … the ideal ● Building the 'beliefs' about how Agile works ● Building 'models' of the ideal process
- 20. 20 I remember thefirst time I worked on an 'Agile' Project
- 21. 21 I remember thefirst time I worked on an 'Agile' Project And it ain't that pretty at all. Ain't that pretty at all. ” “
- 22.
- 23. 23 Stuck on... ● Beingasked to write a test strategy ● 'Poor' Stories and Acceptance Criteria ● Pairing badly on TDD ● Not knowing how to add value around the automated tests ● Knowing that no-one else knew what to do with a 'tester' on the team – I thought there was something 'special' about Agile – I thought “they'd” know
- 24. 24 So I didwhat I always do...
- 25. 25 So I didwhat I always do... ...try to take over the world! “ ” Pinky and 'The Brain' http://www.warnervideo.com/pinkyandthebrain/downloads/pinkydvd2_2_1280x1024.jpg
- 26. 26 So I didwhat I always do... ...think about it as a system...
- 27. 27 I think, Iwork with systems... e.g. ● Software Systems ● People Systems – Individuals, Teams, Departments, etc. ● Tools & Support Systems ● Processes Input, Output, Process, Relationships, Feedback, Fitness for Survival, etc.
- 28. 28 What I did ●My Java knowledge wasn't good enough to add value when pairing with devs, so I improved my Java knowledge ● My TDD knowledge wasn't very good, so I built some code using TDD ● I didn't understand the technology we were using, so I researched the technology I made myself comfortable pairing, working on, and reading the code base
- 29. 29 What I did ●I looked close – at the existing TDD code to look for gaps. Then manually tested gap or added more JUnit code ● I looked far – What does the system do? How do we know it does? – What do the requirements want? Do they get it? – What do we think we had 'Done'? Had we? – How does this thing connect? Together. With Others. – Added automation with wider scope
- 30. 30 What I did ●Made my 'thinking' visible in the wiki ● Made my 'testing' visible by adding work and notes in the tracking system ● Looked for new tools to help me 'see' the System working No-one else knew what testing was supposed to look like, or do, so I made it visible.
- 31. 31 What I did ●Considered 'risks' that the stories didn't cover – Performance – Multiple Users – Extreme Data ● Then targeted those 'risks' with 'testing'
- 32. 32 So I didwhat I always did... ● map 'test process' around existing processes ● I improved my specific skills for the project ● I filled in gaps – asked questions about requirements – automation coverage ...I decided what to do.
- 33. 33 I got hungup on 'Agile'. And I got stuck. When I viewed it as a System, I got free.
- 34. 34 I decided whatto do ● Ignoring the expectations I had from 'Agile' ● I worked with what was currently happening ● 'Beliefs', 'Ideals', 'Research', 'Discussion' all help decide what to do next, and how to improve, but not what to do 'now' ● To work with 'now' I modelled the process as a 'system', with 'relationships', expectations, aims etc.
- 35. 35 With Experience Ilearned... ● “Every Agile project is different, we know this, we don't do things 'by the book' on Agile projects. ● We learn, we interact, we change. ● We write the book we go along. ● Throughout all of this, testing needs to remain viable, and it needs to add value. ● Remaining viable in this kind of environment can be hard.”
- 36. 36 With Experience Ilearned... That, while I value on the items on the right, I value the items on the left more. ● Systems Thinking ● Cybernetics ● General Semantics ● Hypnosis ● Brief Therapy ● Chinese Strategy Philosophy ● Agile Books ● Agile Blogs ● Agile Webinars & Lectures ● Agile Articles ● Lean Software Books, Blogs, etc.
- 37. 37 With Experience Ilearned... That, while I value on the items on the right, I value the items on the left more. ● Systems Thinking ● Cybernetics ● General Semantics ● Hypnosis ● Brief Therapy ● Chinese Strategy Philosophy ● Agile Books ● Agile Blogs ● Agile Webinars & Lectures ● Agile Articles ● Lean Software Books, Blogs, etc. Loot, Pillage, Raid and Steal from other disciplines
- 38. 38 I still have“beliefs” about Agile ● Flexible ● More Open to Suggestion ● More Free to Experiment ● Etc.
- 39. 39 But do notcall me a QA I do not like that name QA, I do not like it, not at all, QA we do not say. “Tester!”, I do say, “It describes me bester, and how I play” So its far bester, to say tester, And do not call me a QA http://seuss.wikia.com/wiki/File:GREEN-EGGS.jpg QA
- 40. 40 “I've Helped TestersSurvive on Agile Projects” ● New Testers (inexperienced) ● Experienced Testers New To Agile ● Experienced Agile Testers ● Mostly by: dealing with their beliefs and expectations, adapting their techniques
- 41. 41 To the creative mindthere is no right or wrong. Every action is an experiment, and every experiment yields its fruit in knowledge. The Illuminatus Trilogy Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson “ ”
- 42. 42 I try tofoster an attitude of... ● Ownership for the tester's 'testing' ● Exploration beyond Acceptance Criteria ● Thinking about systems of 'behaviour', 'needs and wants' ● Improvement of self and test process ● Improvement of team and project process ● Speaking from individual experience ● Survival – assume that if you're not adding value, you're gone
- 43. 43 only variety can absorbvariety ● Stafford Beer restating Ross Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety – “Designing Freedom” published by John Wiley & Sons, 1974, on page 30 “ ”
- 44. 44 “only variety canabsorb variety” ● Team's absorb behaviour and respond – “Designing Freedom” by Stafford Beer, published by John Wiley & Sons, 1974, diagram from page 31
- 45. 45 The real world... ●is messy, and may not map to the books “And it ain't that pretty at all”
- 46. 46 Helping Testers Survive,and Add Value to Agile Projects Alan Richardson EvilTester.com @eviltester SeleniumSimplified.com JavaForTesters.com CompendiumDev.co.uk