Keynote by Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin

1. WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!
.!
PREPARING FOR OUR AGILE TESTING JOURNEYS
AGILE TESTING DAYS – POTSDAM, GERMANY
NOVEMBER 2014
Lisa Crispin Janet Gregory
@lisacrispin @janetgregoryca

2. THE WORLD AS IT WAS…
The Timid Tester
The Cowboy
Programmer

3. ENTER … SUPER AGILE PERSON

4. AND THEN …
COLLABORATION
From Shrek

5. AS WE CONTINUE TO GO WHERE NO MAN (OR
WOMAN) HAS GONE BEFORE…
CAN WE REALLY PREDICT WHAT WILL BE?

6. TOPICS
• Challenges
• What would we like to help?
• What can we do?
• Changing the conversation
• What can we do this week to prepare?

7. CHALLENGES
• Always more for testers to know …
• Specific contexts:
• big data, distributed teams, the
enterprise, embedded, mobile, robotics,
gaming
• New technologies, techniques
• Building the right thing – adding value
• Continuous delivery, continuous testing

8. THE FUTURE
WHAT WE WANT (MAYBE NEED)
VS
THE PRESENT
WHAT WE HAVE HOW WE CAN ADAPT

9. THE AGILE TESTER
Needs to:
• learn new skills
• keep up with new technologies
• communicate well
• keep their finger on the pulse
of product quality
In other words, be a
shape-shifter
to adapt to ever-changing needs
Odo, Star Trek – Deep Space 9
Mystique: X-men

10. WHAT WE DO HAVE … IS
The ability:
• to learn
• to become a T-shaped tester
• to use cognitive thinking skills
• to take charge of your career
BREADTH
D E P T H

11. YOUR CONTEXT
• Technical awareness – to
collaborate with other
roles
• Exploratory testing
• New techniques, eg.
• Swarming
• Generative testing
• Dealing with ‘big data’
Superman – his cave / crystals

12. A COMMON CHALLENGE

13. Distributed teams
Want to be able to talk face-to-face
WHENEVER THEY WANT!
In other words, they need a transporter
Original Star Trek series-

14. WHAT WE CAN DO … IS
• Use existing tools better
• Video conferencing, webcams
• Collaboration aids – eg. mind mapping
• Air travel, road trip, feet
• Learn to respect other’s cultures
Original Star Trek series – Spock, Vulcan
Live long and prosper
Next Generation Star Trek series- Warf, Klingon

15. OUR NEXT CHALLENGE:
GIVING CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY NEED

16. Customers want us to deliver exactly
what they are thinking.
Original Star Trek series – Vulcan mind meldarstechnica.com

17. WHAT WE CAN DO… IS
Learn tools to help us determine what the
real problem is - like impact mapping (Gojko Adzic)

18. Or story mapping (Jeff Patton)

19. WE CAN ALSO ….
Incorporate other disciplines
- like business analysis (eg. 7 product dimensions)
From Discover to Deliver by Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman
- or user experience experts

20. AND ….
• Guide development with real examples
• Not only the API level, but in UI as well

21. SO, WHAT MAY NOT WORK IN THE FUTURE?
IS IT TIME TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION?

22. Original Star Trek series- Season 2: Episode 15

24. BUSINESS VALUE
• Know your stakeholders
• What are their objectives?
• What problem are they trying to solve
• Create a shared understanding
Original Star Trek series
cast

25. More than project or product
risk
Original Star Trek series “bad
guys”

26. Uncertainty
Models can help us chose how we attack a problem
• For example: knowing the difference between
complexity vs.. complicated vs.. simple or even
chaotic
Read Liz Keogh on the Cynefin model

27. USE DIFFERENT
APPROACHES
AND TOOLS
TO:
- Understand the problem
- Mitigate your risk
- Manage your uncertainty
- Understand the value
- Validate the solution

30. CAN WE PREDICT THE FUTURE?
for example:
• How will mobile apps
evolve?
• How will we test them?
.
IT WOULD BE HELPFUL…
Perhaps
we
start
with
a
risk
profile,
and
focus
on
a
risk-­‐based
or
value-­‐based
solu9on
delivery.
Note:
not
test-­‐based

31. WHEN CAN I STOP
DOING CUSTOMER
VALIDATION AND
EXPERIMENTATION?
UM. NEVER. “
CHERYL QUIRION
Original Star Trek series – Scotty, the engineer

32. NEW HORIZONS
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

33. THE WORLD AS IT IS…
CELEBRATE ENJOY THE CONFERENCE!

34. Agile Testing: A Practical
Guide for Testers and Agile
Teams
By Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory
www.janetgregory.ca
email: janet@agiletester.ca
Twitter: @janetgregoryca
34
More Agile Testing: Learning
Journeys for the Whole Team
By Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin
www.agiletester.ca www.agiletester.com
lisacrispin.com
email: lisa@agiletester.ca
Twitter: @lisacrispin