On traditional projects, testers usually join the project after coding has started, or even later when coding is almost finished. Testers have no role in advising the project team early regarding quality issues but focus only on finding defects. They become accustomed to this style of working and adjust their mental processes accordingly. In agile, testers must collaborate closely with customers and programmers throughout the development lifecycle, where their focus changes from finding defects to preventing them. Janet Gregory shares ways to change the tester’s mindset from “How can I break the software?” to “How can I help deliver excellent software?”—a critical mental shift on agile projects. Another facet of the mind-set change is learning how to test early and incrementally. Janet uses interactive exercises and examples to help you understand how effective this mindset change is—and how you can apply it on your agile projects.
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The Mindset Change for the Agile Tester
1. TJ
AM Tutorial
4/30/13 8:30AM
The Mindset Change for the Agile
Tester
Presented by:
Janet Gregory
DragonFire, Inc.
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com
2. Janet Gregory
Agile testing coach and practitioner Janet Gregory (@janetgregoryca) is the coauthor of Agile Testing: A
Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams and a contributor to 97 Things Every Programmer Should
Know. Janet specializes in showing agile teams how testers can add value in areas beyond critiquing the
product. For the past ten years, she has been working with teams to transition to agile development. Janet
teaches agile testing courses and tutorials worldwide, contributes articles to leading publications, and
enjoys sharing her experiences at conferences and user group meetings worldwide. Find more information
at janetgregory.ca or visit her blog.
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First agile team – 2000
Currently – coaching, testing
Book – Agile Testing; January 2009
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• Some ‘Lecture’
• Some ‘Exercises’
• Handling questions ..
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• Iteration (sprint)
• Feature (epic)
• Story
• Done (story done, feature done, release done)
• Feedback
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• more than “just” testing code
• an activity; not a phase
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3
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Instead of
◦ We’re here to find bugs … or ensure
requirements are met … or break the
software …
Think
– What can I do to help deliver
the software successfully!
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Can you think of some ways that you cross
boundaries in how you work?
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5
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What does this phrase mean to people?
Discuss at your tables,
and then we’ll debrief
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T-shaped Skill-set
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• Gives us an enthusiasm for life that is
irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste
good - Lucia Capocchione
• You can discover more about a person in an hour
of play than in a year of conversation. - Plato
• Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning –
Dianne Ackerman
Portia Tung (see references)
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• Communication means ... sharing
◦ Ideas, information, decisions, solutions, etc.
• Collaboration means ...
◦ Working together to find solutions, etc.
◦ The ‘whole team’ …..
Customers, testers and programmers …..
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• Power of Three
• 3 Amigos
• Pairing
• Continuous feedback
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Picture by Augusta Evangelisti, based on diagram from Elisabeth Hendrickson
Explore
examples
User
Story
Accept
Story
High
level
AT
Fix
defects
Explore
Expand
Tests
Exploratory
Testing
Code
&
Execute
tests
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Automate
tests
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• Examples provide common language
• Shared common understanding
• Coding and testing concurrently
• Involves whole team
• Shared definition of DONE
• Prevents defects
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• Question
• Elicit example
• Uncover hidden
assumptions
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Checking:
◦ Confirmation
◦ Machine decidable
GUI
API
Unit Tests
Testing:
◦ Exploration & learning
◦ Requires sapience
**Definitions of testing vs. checking by Michael Bolton
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It’s not just about code !!!
◦ Test assumptions
◦ Uncover hidden assumptions
The goal:
◦ Shared common understanding of the story
◦ Preventing defects (eliminate waste)
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Iteration level
Story test level
System level
Release level
• Understand the
business needs
• What level are at?
• Collaborate
appropriately
Task level
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• Know your
customers
• Make them real
• Plan your
exploratory testing
using them
• Picture – from Jeff Patton’s
Pragmatic Personas weekly column
on Sticky Minds (1/25/2010)
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• Know your context
• Have a tool box full
• Simple is often best
• Use your imagination
Let’s look at some examples
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Taken from
Ready to use
Graphic
Organizers for
primary grade
teachers
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Day 1
Day 1
Day 2
A new user
wants to
create her
account
The new user
wants to log
into the
system
An existing
user wants to
change her
password
An existing
user forgets
her password
The new user
wants to log
into the
system
Day ??
Day ??
Day 60
…….
The user
wants to
delete her
account
Day 30
The system
asks user to
change her
password
Day ??
…….
Words / Phrases
• I wonder ….
• What caught your
attention?
• Could you show me?
• What makes you think
there is more?
…….
Day 2
Day 2
Questions / Predictions
• What might happen
next?
• Why would that be?
• What is the worst thing
that could happen?
• …. or the best?
• What assumptions do
you have?
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Block
account
User can’t
log in
User
enters
wrong
password
They are in
the
database
Wrong
password a
2nd time;
Issue
warning
The
credentials
meet
req’ts
Wrong
password a
third time
Prevent
user from
logging in
again;
Display
msg
They
entered
their
credentials
correctly
Their
password
expired ….
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• Practice anticipating what will happen
• Define your tests
• Check – running tests or collaborate with
customers and programmers before* coding
• Be prepared to change your tests if your
predictions are wrong
• Learn by reviewing – what questions could
you have asked first.
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• Think simple
• Have a variety of tools
• Adapt to your needs
• Look in places you may not have considered
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• Curiosity
• Ability to observe
• Ability to challenge
• Ability to adapt
• To recognize contexts
• Ability to THINK !
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Challenge
Yourself !
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Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for
Testers and Agile Teams
By Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory
www.agiletester.ca
Contact info
www.janetgregory.ca
http://janetgregory.blogspot.com/
Email: janet@agiletester.ca
Twitter: janetgregoryca
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• Elisabeth Hendrickson
CAST keynote http://www.slideshare.net/ehendrickson
Explore It! – new book on Pragmatic Programmers
• Ben Kelly, http://lets-test.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/LetsTest2012BenKelly-TheTestingDead.pdf
• Markus Gartner, http://www.shino.de/2012/07/16/cast-2012-the-testing-dead/
• Paul Carvalho, http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/columnarticles/6515-low-tech-tools-for-the-thinking-tester
• Michael Bolton, http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/08/testing-vschecking
• Ready to Use Graphic Organizers
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• http://www.exampler.com - Brian Marick’s web site
• Gojko Adzic, Bridging the Communication Gap, 2009; Specification by
Example, 2011
• www.stickyminds.com/ Pragmatic Personas - Jeff Patton’s weekly
column 1/25/2010
• Jean Tabaka, Collaboration Explained, 2006 Addison-Wesley
• http://www.uie.com/articles/indispensable_skills
• Portia Tung – Power of Play
http://www.selfishprogramming.com/category/playmaking/
• Ester Derby and Dianne Larsen, Agile Retrospectives
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