1. Testing in agile projects-
problems and solutions
Szilagyi Ladislau
EuroQST
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions

2. Agenda
 Agile testing compared to traditional testing
 Agile testing issues
 Transitioning to agile testing
 What to do for a quick agile testing adoption?
 Any help from the traditional testing certifications?
 Solutions for a quick agile testing adoption
 Q&A
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
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3. Agile testing compared to traditional testing
Testing – the traditional way
 Independent test team
 Test team managed by a test lead
 V-model to handle the testing life-cycle
 Sequential test phases: planning, analysis, design, implementation,
execution, reporting
 Test cases based execution of tests is predominant
 Written communication with the project team
Testing – the agile way
 Whole team approach, no independent test team
 Self-managed test team, no test lead
 Iterative, incremental testing life-cycle
 Inter-mixed test phases
 Exploratory testing is predominant
 Face-to-face communication with the project team
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions 3

4. Agile testing compared to traditional testing
Testing – the traditional way
Testing – in an agile sprint
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5. Agile testing issues
 Requirements sources has changed:
 Just-in-time, user stories - no more use cases
 Frequent change requests
 Life cycle dynamics is accelerated:
 Each day, some features are implemented and must be tested
 Each month, some business flows need to pass acceptance testing
 Testing strategy is more context driven:
 Proactive and preventive, not reactive any more
 When to perform regression testing?
 When to test the performance, security, usability?
 Test automation in a day-to-day basis:
 Continuous integration
 Unit testing
 Team integration and communication constraints:
 Soft skills
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6. Agile testing issues
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions 6

7. Transitioning to agile testing
 Agile testing must be learned
 Learning agile testing cannot be done over-night
 Pilot projects must be used to practice agile testing
 Team formation issues must be managed
 Soft skills improvement is essential
 Face-to-face communication issues need to be mitigated
 Testers need to learn working in cross-functional teams
 Acceptance driven test development need to be learned
 Test automation targeted to continuous integration, unit test
and acceptance test, adopted in an incremental-iterative way
 Conclusion: adopting agile testing is an incremental-iterative
process; training, learning and practicing is vital
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Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions 7

8. What to do for a quick agile testing adoption?
Critical factors:
 Whole-team approach – testers need to learn how to
communicate with and help the product owner, business
analysts, programmers; feedback is essential
 New tester mindset – proactive, creative, willing to take
responsibilities and help the team
 Test automation, as a safety net, regression and acceptance
oriented
 Develop white-box and component integration testing skills
 Closer collaboration with the customers and end-users, from
early project stages
 Context driven, session based exploratory testing
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions 8

9. Any help from the traditional testing certifications?
Can we benefit from the traditional testing certification schemes
( for example, ISTQB), to make more easy the agile testing
adoption process?
Unfortunately, no! Why?
Because ISTQB teaches about:
 Benefits of independent testing teams
 Test team is managed by a test manager
 V-model used to handle the testing life-cycle
 Sequential test phases: planning, analysis, design,
implementation, execution, reporting
 Test cases based execution of tests
 Written communication with the project team
All these will not be practiced when testing in agile projects!
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
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10. Solutions for a quick adoption of agile testing
We know already that adopting agile testing is an incremental-
iterative process; training, learning and practicing is vital
 Testing books:
 Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory – Agile testing
 Testing magazines:
 Agile Record
 Certified Agile Tester (CAT) courses and exams:
 50% of the course schedule is practicing agile testing on laptops
 3-tier exam:
 Soft skills assessment
 Practical (bug hunting)
 Theory, using open questions (no multiple choice questions)
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
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11. Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions
Questions?
Agile Tour Bucharest 2011
Testing in agile projects – problems and solutions 11