Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

Chapter 14. An Agile Test Automation Strategy

An Agile Approach to Test Automation

Automation Test Categories

Test Automation Pyramid

What Can We Automate?

Continuous Integration, Builds, and Deploys

Unit and Component Tests

API or Web Services Testing

Testing behind the GUI

Testing the GUI

Load Tests

Comparisons

Repetitive Tasks

Data Creation or Setup

What Shouldn’t We Automate?

Usability Testing

Exploratory Testing

Tests that Will Never Fail

One-Off Tests

What Might Be Hard to Automate?

Developing an Automation Strategy—Where Do We Start?

Where Does It Hurt the Most?

Multi-Layered Approach

Think about Test Design and Maintenance

Choosing the Right Tools

Applying Agile Principles to Test Automation

Keep It Simple

Iterative Feedback

Whole-Team Approach

Taking the Time to Do It Right

Learn by Doing

Apply Agile Coding Practices to Tests

Supplying Data for Tests

Data Generation Tools

Avoid Database Access

When Database Access Is Unavoidable or Even Desirable

Understand Your Needs

Evaluating Automation Tools

Identifying Requirements for Your Automation Tool

One Tool at a Time

Choosing Tools

Agile-Friendly Tools

Implementing Automation

Managing Automated Tests

Organizing Tests

Organizing Test Results

Go Get Started

Summary

Part V. An Iteration in the Life of a Tester

Chapter 15. Tester Activities in Release or Theme Planning

The Purpose of Release Planning

Sizing

How to Size Stories

The Tester’s Role in Sizing Stories

An Example of Sizing Stories

Prioritizing

Why We Prioritize Stories

Testing Considerations While Prioritizing

What’s in Scope?

Deadlines and Timelines

Focus on Value

System-Wide Impact

Third-Party Involvement

Test Planning

Where to Start

Why Write a Test Plan?

Types of Testing

Infrastructure

Test Environments

Test Data

Test Results

Test Plan Alternatives

Lightweight Test Plans

Using a Test Matrix

Test Spreadsheet

A Whiteboard

Automated Test List

Preparing for Visibility

Tracking Test Tasks and Status

Communicating Test Results

Release Metrics

Summary

Chapter 16. Hit the Ground Running

Be Proactive

Benefits

Do You Really Need This?

Potential Downsides to Advance Preparation

Advance Clarity

Customers Speak with One Voice

Story Size

Geographically Dispersed Teams

Examples

Test Strategies

Prioritize Defects

Resources

Summary

Chapter 17. Iteration Kickoff

Iteration Planning

Learning the Details

Considering All Viewpoints

Writing Task Cards

Deciding on Workload

Testable Stories

Collaborate with Customers

High-Level Tests and Examples

Reviewing with Customers

Reviewing with Programmers

Test Cases as Documentation

Summary

Chapter 18. Coding and Testing

Driving Development

Start Simple

Add Complexity

Assess Risk

Coding and Testing Progress Together

Identify Variations

Power of Three

Focus on One Story

Tests that Critique the Product

Collaborate with Programmers

Pair Testing

“Show Me”

Talk to Customers

Show Customers

Understand the Business

Completing Testing Tasks

Dealing with Bugs

Is It a Defect or Is It a Feature?

Technical Debt

Zero Bug Tolerance

It’s All about Choices

Decide Which Bugs to Log

Choose When to Fix Your Bugs

Choose the Media You Should Use to Log a Bug

Alternatives and Suggestions for Dealing with Bugs

Start Simple

Facilitate Communication

Testers Facilitate Communication

Distributed Teams

Regression Tests

Keep the Build “Green”

Keep the Build Quick

Building a Regression Suite

Checking the “Big Picture”

Resources

Iteration Metrics

Measuring Progress

Defect Metrics

Summary

Chapter 19. Wrap Up the Iteration

Iteration Demo

Retrospectives

Start, Stop, Continue

Ideas for Improvements

Celebrate Successes

Summary

Chapter 20. Successful Delivery

What Makes a Product?

Planning Enough Time for Testing

The End Game

Testing the Release Candidate

Test on a Staging Environment

Final Nonfunctional Testing

Integration with External Applications

Data Conversion and Database Updates

Installation Testing

Communication

What If It’s Not Ready?

Customer Testing

UAT

Alpha/Beta Testing

Post-Development Testing Cycles

Deliverables

Releasing the Product

Release Acceptance Criteria

Release Management

Packaging

Production Support

Understand Impact to Business

Customer Expectations

Summary

Part VI. Summary

Chapter 21. Key Success Factors

Success Factor 1: Use the Whole-Team Approach

Success Factor 2: Adopt an Agile Testing Mind-Set

Success Factor 3: Automate Regression Testing

Success Factor 4: Provide and Obtain Feedback

Success Factor 5: Build a Foundation of Core Practices

Continuous Integration

Test Environments

Manage Technical Debt

Working Incrementally

Coding and Testing Are Part of One Process

Synergy between Practices

Success Factor 6: Collaborate with Customers

Success Factor 7: Look at the Big Picture

Summary

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Praise for Agile Testing