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. Fortunately, we can learn to add value. In this keynote, Alan will describe some of the approaches and models he has used to help testing remain viable. Helping testers analyze the ‘system of development’ so the test approach can target process risks. Helping testers harness their own unique skills and approaches. The attitudes that the testing process often needs to have driving it, and the skill sets that teams need to ensure are applied to their testing. At a simple level, this is just Systems Thinking and Modeling. In practice this can prove highly subversive and deliberately provocative. Because we’re not talking about ‘fitting in’, we’re talking about survival.

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Helping Testers Add Value to Agile
Projects
Alan Richardson
EvilTester.com
@eviltester
SeleniumSimplified.com
JavaForTesters.com
CompendiumDev.co.uk

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Warren Zevon (1947 - 2003)
“Ain't that pretty at all”, The Envoy, 1982

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We can get Jaded & 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
“
”

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Reality doesn't match our wants
And it ain't that pretty at all.
Ain't that pretty at all.
“
”
Warren Zevon,
“Ain't that pretty at all”, 1982

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We may not have 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

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Sometimes my job...
I've been 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

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… the real world is what it is
And sometimes it ain't that
pretty at all

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I help testers survive 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

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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
”
“

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“I'm here to make
you look good”

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“I'm here to make
you look good”
not

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“I'm here to make
you look good”
not
side-effect

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If you do this 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.

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Survival == Adding Value by Doing
Testing Stuff
● Finding problems
● Checking Acceptance Criteria
● Testing
● Making your Test Coverage Visible
● Pairing on ATDD
● …etc.

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We survive when we 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

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“I would sooner walk 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/

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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'

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I must create a 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
“
”

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I remember a time 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

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I remember the first time I worked
on an 'Agile' Project

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I remember the first time I worked
on an 'Agile' Project
And it ain't that pretty at all.
Ain't that pretty at all.
”
“

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I Got Stuck

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Stuck on...
● Being asked 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

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So I did what I always do...

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So I did what I always do...
...try to take
over the world!
“
”
Pinky and 'The Brain'
http://www.warnervideo.com/pinkyandthebrain/downloads/pinkydvd2_2_1280x1024.jpg

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So I did what I always do...
...think about it
as a system...

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I think, I work 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.

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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

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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

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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.

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What I did
● Considered 'risks' that the stories didn't cover
– Performance
– Multiple Users
– Extreme Data
● Then targeted those 'risks' with 'testing'

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So I did what 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.

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I got hung up on 'Agile'.
And I got stuck.
When I viewed it as
a System, I got free.

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I decided what to 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.

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With Experience I learned...
● “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.”

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With Experience I learned...
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.

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With Experience I learned...
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

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I still have “beliefs” about Agile
● Flexible
● More Open to Suggestion
● More Free to Experiment
● Etc.

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But do not call 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

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“I've Helped Testers Survive 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

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To the creative
mind there 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
“
”

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I try to foster 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

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only variety can
absorb variety
● Stafford Beer restating Ross
Ashby's Law of Requisite
Variety
– “Designing Freedom” published
by John Wiley & Sons, 1974, on
page 30
“
”

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“only variety can absorb variety”
● Team's absorb behaviour and respond
– “Designing Freedom” by Stafford Beer, published by
John Wiley & Sons, 1974, diagram from page 31

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The real world...
● is messy, and may not map to the books
“And it ain't that pretty at all”

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Helping Testers Survive, and Add
Value to Agile Projects
Alan Richardson
EvilTester.com
@eviltester
SeleniumSimplified.com
JavaForTesters.com
CompendiumDev.co.uk