1. Romania Open Agile
May 2010
Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc.
Copyright 2010
2. Takeaways
Symptoms vs. problems
Four lessons learned
l l d
For each lesson
The problem
how to recognize the problem (the symptoms)
o to ecog e t e p ob e (t e sy pto s)
practical ideas you can take today
….. But first, what agile to me!
2
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
3. • practice iterative, incremental development
• encourage active customer participation
• demand whole team collaboration
demand whole team collaboration
• test features as they are coded
• deliver business value at regular intervals at a
sustainable pace
• adapt their processes based on feedback
…how hard can this be? ………….
…how hard can this be? ………….
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
4. • Question ‐‐ What is the real problem?
• Ask ‐‐‐Why why why why and why?
Ask Why, why, why, why....and why?
• Too many times we solve the wrong thing
• Use retrospectives to identify symptoms
Use retrospectives to identify symptoms
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
6. The Problem
The feedback is too late to fix anything because
o Your testing is at the end of the iteration or even
Your testing is at the end of the iteration or even
worse, in the next iteration
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
7. • Us vs them vocabulary
Us vs. them vocabulary
• Testers don’t know what to test
• Testing tasks carried to the next iteration
• Bugs aren’t fixed during the iteration
• Teams have defined ‘done‐done’
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
8. TRY ...
Whole team approach
o the team committed to testing, quality
g, q y
o the team solves problems
o Testers come to planning sessions
p g
o Anyone can pick up a task
Power of Three
Add value
Add value
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
9. • Practice ATDD
◦ (Acceptance Test Driven Dev)
• Give tests to programmers early
p g y
• Break stories up smaller <3 days
• Slice stories vertically
Slice stories vertically
• Create feature teams, not
component teams
tt
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
11. • The team guesses at implementation
• Team takes longer to get “it” right
k l “ ” h
• Requirements are misunderstood
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
12. • Requirement bugs are found in
production
d i
• Bugs aren’t true software issues
◦ Data issues
◦ Human error problems
• Team is spending time
understanding bugs
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
13. • Chose a piece of the business to learn
• Work with the customer to define feature level
Work with the customer to define feature level
acceptance tests
• Take time to understand what the customer
k d d h h
really needs
• Ask “what problem are we trying to solve?”
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
16. • Regression tests are not run every day
◦ or even every iteration
i i
• Testers spend their time testing
◦ and retesting
d
• Bugs find their way back
• No exploratory testing
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
17. • Tackle small chunks
• Choose tools so that
h l h
◦ Testers and developers can
collaborate
ll b t
◦ Developers can help automate
• U th
Use the agile testing pyramid
il t ti id
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
20. Recognize complacency or panic when…
Recognize complacency or panic when
• Old habits resurface
• You hear “We don’t have time for that”
• New people influence your process negatively
• Tests aren’t refactored or reviewed
Tests aren t refactored or reviewed
• You forget to keep the tests running green
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
21. p
• Make the process visible
• Make the metrics visible
Make the metrics visible
• Understand the why behind the process
Understand the why behind the process
• Use your retrospectives to find problems
i fi d bl
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
23. Whole Team
Whole Team
Participation
Automate
Regression Tests
Collaborate
Practice to
Practice to
prevent
Provide Be involved
complacency
p y
feedback early
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
25. • www.lisacrispin.com
• agile‐testing@yahoogroups.com
• www.testobsessed.com
• www.testingreflections.com
• vwww.mountaingoatsoftware.com – Mike Cohn’s web site (and all his books)
• Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Lean Software
Development, 2003 Addison‐Wesley (series of 3)
( )
• Jean Tabaka, Collaboration Explained, 2006 Addison‐Wesley
• Li C i i d Ti H T i E P i 2002
Lisa Crispin and Tip House, Testing Extreme Programming, 2002
Addison‐Wesley
• Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto org/
Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/
Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.
