Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

When the whole development team takes responsibility for testing and quality, you have a large variety of skill sets and experience levels taking on whatever testing issues might arrive. Test automation isn’t a big problem to a group of skilled programmers. When testing is a team priority, and anyone can sign up for testing tasks, the team designs testable code.

Making testers truly part of the development team means giving them the support and training they need to adapt to the fast pace of agile development. They have time to acquire new skills in order to collaborate closely with members of both the development and customer teams.

If you manage an agile team, use the suggestions in Part II, “Organizational Challenges,” to help your team adopt the whole-team approach. Remember that quality, not speed, is the goal of agile development. Your team needs testers to help customers clarify requirements, turn those into tests that guide development, and provide a unique viewpoint that will promote delivery of a solid product. Make sure the testers can transfer their skills and expertise to the rest of the team. Make sure they aren’t pigeonholed in a role such as only doing manual testing. Make sure that when they ask for help (which may require considerable courage on their part), their team members give it. The reverse is true, too; a tester should step up whenever someone needs assistance that they can provide.

If you’re a tester on an agile team, and there are planning meetings and design discussions happening that don’t include you, or the business users are struggling to define their stories and requirements alone, it’s time to get up and go talk to the rest of the team. Sit with the programmers, invite yourself to meetings, and propose trying the “Power of Three” by involving a tester, a programmer, and a business expert. Be useful, giving feedback and helping the customers provide examples. Make your problems the team’s problems, and make their problems yours. Ask your teammates to adopt a whole-team approach.

See Chapter 2, “Ten Principles for Agile Testers,” for an example of how the “Power of Three” works.

Success Factor 2: Adopt an Agile Testing Mind-Set

In Chapter 2, “Ten Principles for Agile Testers,” we cautioned agile testers to lose any “Quality Police” mind-set they might have brought with them. You’re on an agile team now, where programmers test and testers do whatever they can think of to help the team deliver the best possible product. As we emphasized in Chapter 2, an agile testing attitude is proactive, creative, open to new ideas, and willing to take on any task. The agile tester constantly hones her craft, is always ready to collaborate, trusts her instincts, and is passionate about helping the team and the business succeed.

We don’t mean that you should put on your Super Tester cape and go protect the world from bugs. There’s no room for big egos on agile teams. Your teammates share your passion for quality. Focus on the team’s goals and do what you can to help everyone do their best work.

Use agile principles and values to guide you. Always try the simplest approach to meeting a testing need. Be courageous in seeking help and experimenting with new ideas. Focus on delivering value. Communicate as directly and as often as possible. Be flexible in responding to change. Remember that agile development is people-centric, and that we should all enjoy our work. When in doubt, go back to the values and principles to decide what to do.

An important component of the agile testing mind-set is the drive to continually find better ways to work. A successful agile tester constantly polishes her craft. Read good books, blogs, and articles to get new ideas and skills. Attend local user group meetings. Participate in mailing list discussions to get feedback on problems or new ideas. If your company won’t pay for you to attend a good conference, put what you’ve learned into an experience report to exchange for a free conference registration. Giving back to your testing and agile development communities will help you, too.

See Chapter 2, “Ten Principles for Agile Testers,” for more about the agile testing mindset.

Experiment with new practices, tools, and techniques. Encourage your team to try new approaches. Short iterations are ideally suited to experimentation. You might fail, but it’ll be fast, and you can try something else.

If you manage agile testers or an agile team, give them time to learn and provide support for the training they need. Remove obstacles so that they can do their best work.