Agile Testing

Elisabeth Hendrickson Quality Tree Software, Inc. www.qualitytree.com

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2005, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

Poll: How Agile Is Your Testing Now?

How many of you Would call your test practices Agile? Participate in defining the acceptance criteria? Routinely test incomplete software to provide feedback to your stakeholders sooner? Have adopted a lightweight documentation style? Have found that your test artifacts are relatively easy to update even when there are radical changes to the code? Have access to the source code and to the same set of tools as the programmers? Have ensured the programmers have full access to all the artifacts and tools you use? Are co-located with the project team?
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Whats Agile? Agile is more than a buzzword. It is a relentless focus on providing business value, usually by adopting one or more Agile methodologies such as Scrum or XP.
See the Agile Manifesto: http://www.agilemanifesto.org And the Agile Alliance: http://www.agilealliance.org

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2005, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

Examples of Agile Methodologies

Lean Lean manufacturing concepts applied to software development. Crystal Lightweight set of development practices. Scrum Lightweight management framework.

Extreme Programming (XP) Rigorous set of practices designed to keep both the code and team agile.
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Agile Synthesized
Communication and collaboration Visible indicators Disciplined development practices Feedback Whole team thinking Short iterations Low overhead, high productivity

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Calling It Agile Doesnt Make It So

This is NOT Agile:

1. Compress the schedule 2. Toss out the documentation 3. Code up to the last minute
The organization may gain short term speed but at the cost of long term pain.

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How Traditional Test Practices Evolved With great optimism and the best of intentions, The Project Plan is announced:
Analyze Design Code Test/Bug Fix

Requirements handed off to Dev

Completed Code handed off to Test

Release

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How Traditional Test Practices Evolved

Inevitably, The Project Plan is revised:

Analyze, Design, & Code Test/Bug Fix

Completed Code handed off to Test

Release

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The Result: Practices Intended to Control Chaos

Traditional test practices attempt to manage the chaos (or at least avoid the blame): Last Defender of Quality stance Strict change management Detailed preparation and up front planning Heavyweight documentation suitable for outsourcing the test effort Strict entrance and exit criteria with signoffs Heavyweight test automation focused on regression

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Becoming Agile: Shifting Roles

Fear not! Ill protect you!

from last line of defense

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Hey, would this help?

to team support
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Testing Directions: Maricks Model

Business Facing Support Programming Critique Product

Technology Facing Source: http://www.testing.com/cgi-bin/blog/2003/08/21#agile-testing-project-1

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Traditional & Agile Testing Contrasted

Traditional Testing Change Planning Documentation Handoffs Automation Manage & control it. Comprehensive up front test design. Verbose. Formal entrance and exit criteria with signoffs. System-level, built by tool specialists, created after the code is done. Agile Testing Accept it. Plan as you go. Only as much as absolutely necessary. Its not a relay race. Collaborate. All levels, built by anyone, an integral part of the project.

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Embrace Change: Plan Tests for Maintainability

Change

When creating test artifacts Minimize duplication. Thought exercise: if a feature were removed from your software, how many test artifacts would have to be updated? Use tools designed for change. Hint: if the vendor says stabilize the interface first, run away!
Planning Handoffs

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Automation

Documentation

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How Not to Plan a Test Effort

Change

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Automation

Handoffs

Unfortunately, this is common practice: Download a generic, standard, formal test plan template from the Internet. Fill in every section in the template even if you dont understand it and have to make stuff up. Kill the maximum possible number of trees by distributing copies to every team member. The result is a large and mostly irrelevant plan that must now be maintained. Yuck.

Documentation

Planning

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Plan as Little as Possible

A little planning is good. More is not better. Know who you serve (primarily). Technology-facing or business-facing? Plan for the current iteration. Speculative planning means rework. Have a strategy that fits on one page. If it is still relevant in 6 months, its probably at the right level of detail. Keep an up-to-date, prioritized risks list. What kind of information are the testers looking for? The risks list covers it.
Change Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Planning

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Favor Informal, Collaborative Tools

Change

Documentation

Planning

Informal

Whiteboards Sticky Notes Index Cards Wikis Databases Gantt/PERT Charts Polished Documents

Formal
Handoffs

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Automation

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Monitor Documentation Costs

Change
How Much Time Are We Spending on Test Documentation?
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 % Time 60 70 80 90 100

Planning

Documentation

Handoffs

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Automation

How Much Does Documentation Cost? Informal polling of 162 software testers from 65 companies revealed that most spend more than 33% of their time documenting tests.

# Testers Reporting

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Keep the Documentation Simple

Change

Planning

Capture the essence, not the details. Step-by-step instructions cost time without providing value (usually). Point to other project documents. If its in the user guide, requirements, specs, etc., leave it there. Centralize generic tests in a checklist. Try this: count the number of times you find a common condition, like invalid dates or null strings, in the test docs. More than once is too many.
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Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Watch Verbose Wording

Change

Which would you rather maintain? Choose the Import option from the File menu. A dialog titled Import File appears. Navigate to \\x\y\z\long.dat and click Open. A dialog titled Importing appears with the current status, a progress bar, and a button labeled Cancel. Click on the Cancel button. Choose OK on the confirmation dialog. Verify that the import stops. Or: Start a long import. Cancel it in the middle. Verify it stops.
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Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Planning

A Lightweight Example
Change Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Planning

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Do Away with the Signoff Sheet

Change

Documentation

Hint: when people joke about signing the handoff form in blood, the signoff process is more about blame than about producing good software.

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Automation

Handoffs

Planning

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Integrate Testing
Testing is not a phase. Its a way of life. Agile teams are test infected. The question, How will we test it? is as important as How will we build it? Co-locate testers and programmers. But sitting side by side does not ensure communication. Track testing status and programming status all together. Show tests run-passed-failed together with features/stories done and left to do.
Change Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Planning

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Leverage Automation Investments

Automate everything you can, but invest wisely. Collaborate with programmers on test infrastructure code. The programmers have already automated the unit tests. Why not reuse the investment where possible? Use different types of automated tests for different purposes. Automated system tests should cover end-to-end sequences. Unit tests detect unintended change. Dont substitute one for the other.
Change Documentation Automation

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Handoffs

Planning

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Automation & Exploratory Testing

Change

Use test automation to support early exploratory testing.

Planning

Documentation

Traditional test wisdom says we cant start testing a feature until its accessible from an external interface (like a GUI). But we dont have to wait. Test automation can facilitate manual exploration.

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Automation

Handoffs

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Agile Testing Synthesized

Communication and collaboration Whole team thinking Low overhead, high productivity Early involvement Leveraged automation Focus on providing rapid feedback to key stakeholders

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Necessary Conditions for Agile Testing

1. The organization is willing to embrace agility as defined by the Agile Manifesto. Saying Be More Agile or Test Faster isnt enough. The whole team is responsible for quality, not just the testers or people with Quality in their title. Which are you more likely to hear: How did you miss that bug?!? or How did we not catch that? Everyone tests, not just designated testers. Agile teams are test infected. Managers focus on fixing problems, not blame. Agile practices dont provide CYA paper trails and are unlikely to succeed in a high-blame, high-fear environment.
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2.

3. 4.

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Agile Testers Wanted: A Job Description

Responsibilities: Perform manual/exploratory tests on early-stage code Create automated acceptance tests Advise the team about overall risks and trends Assist the business stakeholders define acceptance criteria Facilitate communication between the technical & business stakeholders Qualifications: Experience designing and executing tests Scripting skills in at least one of the following languages: Ruby, Perl, Python, or JavaScript. Experience programming in Java, C#, etc. a plus. Strong analysis skills Ability to work in a team (bullpen) environment
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Test Teams that Embrace Agility

Focus on providing value to our key stakeholders (both business-facing and technology-facing) Shift from being the last line of defense to providing an information service. Aggressively reduce time and resources spent on anything that does not directly contribute to providing information. Collaborate with programmers to improve testability and leverage test automation efforts.

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Further Reading Beck, K. (1999). Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. Addison-Wesley. Cockburn, A. (2004). Crystal Clear: A HumanPowered Methodology for Small Teams. AddisonWesley. Crispin, L., & House, T. (2002). Testing Extreme Programming. Addison-Wesley. Poppendieck, M. & Poppendieck, T. (2003). Lean Software Development. Addison-Wesley. Schwaber, K. & Beedle, M. (2001). Agile Software Development with SCRUM. Prentice Hall.
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Acknowledgements Many thanks to early reviewers of the ideas presented here: Brian Marick, William Wake, Jonathan Kohl, Jeffrey Fredrick, Daniel Knierim, Marc Kellogg, Danny Faught, Ron Jeffries, Hubert Smits, Rob Mee, Sherry Erskine, Amy Jo Esser, Gunjan Doshi, Dave Liebreich, Janet Gregory, Chris McMahon

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