Agile & High Speed Software Testing

Overview:

Testing the right things, the right way, at the right time; taking insufficient time and turning it into enough time.

Description:

By using a step-by-step approach, this course will document how to transition from traditional test practices to an Agile testing approach. Learning the goals of Agile will help you transition, implement and monitor testing in the High Speed Agile Testing environment.

Agile principles add value to your organization.

Building on traditional risk based test practice we are now being challenged by incremental delivery. To address, and not inhibit, we examine the concept of pair testing. Strengthening relationships, in a team setting, helps to build a sense of common purpose. Working in parallel eliminates hand-offs, late stage testing, and an opportunity for incremental confirmed component delivery. This program builds on what we know, and adapts to what we have… Agile delivery. Traditional methods become a barrier under new development methods and place further pressure on the test team to feel a sense of value compromise. The new found, high speed test delivery, opens new areas of opportunity to build strength in product quality, process improvement and test confidence. 

Learn to transition to Agile testing practices across the entire release cycle.

Despite changes in methods and approaches we continually slide back into old test habits. Often we leave methods behind, rather than transition from them. We throw everything away and do a wholesale replacement without putting to bed the reasons for change. Most testing works but only within the development context that it was framed. The program will reflect tradition against Agile testing, what changes we must make and the role that we will play. Testing is not a service but an integrated part of the development team.

Acquire the practical skills and knowledge to successfully test an Agile software project.

The 2-day program will introduce you to high speed methods, and explore their use so that you can immediately step from the classroom into the office with new found confidence. We will discuss transition, roles, methods and technologies that can be relied upon to deliver speed and optimum flexibility. You will start to feel a new sense of flexibility, confidence and enthusiasm (maybe for the first time in your entire development career).

A series of real-wold, practical workshops will allow for hands-on learning and application of some of the courses core techniques.

Day 1: Morning - Challenges Facing Traditional and Agile Testing
There are areas of commonality and dissimilarity in traditional and agile testing. In this workshop, teams will discuss the everyday challenges faced testing in a rapid development, high-expectation business setting. The outcome is a set of target areas that will then be mapped against potential solutions that are introduced in the course.

Day 1: Morning - Rapid Story Card Development and Test Objective Delivery
The process of story card development is characterized as 'brainstorming' requirements. The task of developing associated test objectives (TDD) often is much less creative, and often pragmatic. This exercise will look at ways to introduce 'brainstorming' to TDD while maintaining a degree of pragmatism for purposes of test coverage.

Day 1: Afternoon - Agile Testing Role Assignment
This mini-workshop is intended to discuss not only who will perform what roles but also how this is challenged in each participating company. Hints on how to engage these areas, which have not historically been involved, will produce measurable results that can be applied once back in your company setting.

Day 1: Afternoon - Rapid Testing under Varying Development Scenarios
Nimble testing isn't just about new development, it must also address scheduled maintenance and emergency repair situations. In order to promote rapid testing a different approach is necessary. This exercise will examine each of these 'non-green field' conditions and establish a plan as to how they might be best served with Agility in mind.

Day 2: Morning - Understanding and Using Risk Assessment to Promote Speed
This workshop centers on conducting an appropriate level of risk assessment and using this to synchronize test attention but also help to promote risk driven development. The outcome is to promote speed but do so in such a way as to guard against the unexpected.

Day 2: Morning - Designing Test Cases from Story Cards
The hardest part of testing is Test Design. Using a series of story cards, groups will develop tests to address both unit and acceptance testing. These will be discussed to better understand the differences between these two test objective areas, the level of detail to promote, and to consider the importance of test calibration (as a thinning technique).

Day 2: Afternoon - Marco Polo... The Explorer
For aggressive demanding projects exploratory testing is an approach that helps to better understand the overall testing condition that we face. Using a real application, this exercise will offer practice in application segmentation, practice test exploration, and concludes with the value of what has been discovered.

Day 2: Afternoon - The Coach
Utilizing three difficult situations the class will discuss possible solutions. The exercise will explore what skills are needed, how they will interact with another coach (the ScrumMaster/PM) and what steps they personally need to develop to be a valuable team participant.