Agile Testing in the Enterprise

1. Agile Testing
in the
Enterprise
Janet Gregory
@janetgregoryca
Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc.
Copyright 2016
Agile Testing Days, Potsdam 2016

2. Agile Testing; 2009
More Agile Testing: Oct 2014
Co-authored with Lisa Crispin
Website:
www.agiletester.com
www.agiletester.ca
DragonFire Inc.
www.janetgregory.ca
@janetgregoryca
janet@agiletester.ca
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3. Let’s learn a bit about your experiences
- Less than 100 people
- Larger than 1,000 employees
- Larger than 5,000
- Different cities, same time zone (or 1 hr. apart)
- Time zones more than 7 hrs difference
- More than 3 remote teams
- Others?
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4. to share my
experiences on how
agile testing activities
can span large teams…
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5. Some of the challenges
Plan for testing
Key testing practices that work across teams
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Sharing is caring

6. Large organizations
that have enterprise applications and
solutions
@janetgregoryca

7. Small co-located teams: Agile’s sweet spot
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8. Defined by its:
◦ Values, norms,
assumptions
◦ Social system
◦ Visible artifacts
 Icons
 Rituals
 Vocabulary
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@janetgregoryca

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How do we
interact? Do you play the
blame game?
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10. • Bureaucracy
• Reporting needs (real or imagined)
• Orders handed down ….
• Too many concurrent projects
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11. • Organizational controls – regulatory, internal
• Working with third parties
• Involving customers in other locations
• ERP system integration
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@janetgregoryca

12. Other Testing Specific Issues
Too many dependencies
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Tester on more than one team

13. Some of the challenges
Plan for testing
Key testing practices that work across teams
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Sharing is caring
@janetgregoryca

14. Consider the feature
Create testable
stories
Who tests what?
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@janetgregoryca

15. ReleasePlanning Team A
Planning
Test Mind Map
Team B
Planning
Team C
Planning
Team D
Planning
Release
Test Matrix
Release
Test Planning
/ Approach

17. Lots of Stuff Shopping
Release 1.5
DataIntegrity
Look&Feel
Calculations
Currency
Localization
DevicesiPad
DevicesiPhone
BoundaryConditions
Load/Performance
Security
Store customer information
Add to shopping cart
Calculate shipping costs
Mobile iOs - view only
Next feature
Legend
Good to Go
Some testing; could use more
Major issue
No testing done
Not applicable `

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Think in Levels of Detail

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Dependencies
between
teams
Remove them
before the
iteration, but
remember to
test them
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23. Each team responsible
for delivering their
feature -- completely
Specialist teams report
to the “owner” feature
team.
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24. Over-riding test strategy on how …. but
• Understand who is testing what
• What are the overlaps?
• Where are the gaps?
• Co-ordination between teams?
• ASK: Who, when, how???
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@janetgregoryca

25. Coordinate
Tools & Practices
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26. • Classes of tools
• Involve teams in choosing tools
• One size does not fit all
◦ But … be aware of too many tools for support or
cross-training
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27. • Same version control
◦ Understand the branching and merging approach
• Same CI environment
◦ Use to visualize test results
• Accessible & stable test environments
◦ Know what versions of applications are in each
environment
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28. Some of the challenges
Plan for testing
Key testing practices that work across teams
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Sharing is caring
@janetgregoryca

29. • What is the state of testability of your
architecture?
◦ Can you simplify it for automation?
• Regulatory
◦ simplest thing you can possibly do
◦ Consider NECESSARY artifacts – can you automate
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30. • Power of 3
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• Repeat verbal conversations in writing
• Question
• Draw pictures
• Test ideas

31. • Aim for short feedback cycles
• Remove dependencies early
• Start with a test to remove assumptions
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@janetgregoryca

32. We can use tests and examples for shared
understanding and common language
For example, create a function to add 2 numbers
-2 + 1 = -1
2.0 + 1.050 = 3.050
2.0 + 1 = 3.0
2 + 1 = 3

33. @janetgregoryca

34. @janetgregoryca

35. Some of the challenges
Plan for testing
Key testing practices that work across teams
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Sharing is caring
@janetgregoryca

36. Sharing information, that is
Transparency means less blame
• No hiding
• No secrets
• No gaming the system
The hard part is making it visible
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@janetgregoryca

37. • Share dependencies
• Same vision
• Same goal
• Accessible to all
• Keep everyone “in
the loop”
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@janetgregoryca

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Final note:
I’m not advocating distributed teams or
out-sourcing but if you are faced with those
problems, I hope you can use some of these
ideas to help manage your agile testing.
and
Agile ≠ NO DOCUMENTATION
Know your own context!

43. Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams
More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team
By Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin
www.agiletester.ca
www.agiletester.com
Contact info
www.janetgregory.ca
Email: janet@agiletester.ca
Twitter: janetgregoryca
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