Presentation from online conference ConfeT&QA (March 2012) about true role of testers and ways to fix development process to avoid their participation in usual stages of the quality control chain.

1. DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT TESTERS:
MYTH OR REAL OPTION?
Mikalai Alimenkou
http://xpinjection.com
14.03.2012

2. Background
• Java Technical Lead/Scrum Master at Zoral
Labs
• 7+ years in software development
• 5+ years of working by Agile
methodologies
• Expert in Agile engineering practices
• Founder and coach at XP Injection
(http://xpinjection.com)
• Organizer of Selenium Camp, JEEConf and
XP Days Ukraine conferences

3. Before start doing something you need to understand it properly
I. WRONG VISION OF TESTING
ACTIVITY

4. Why so many testers?
Too many bugs “Brave” automation team
Endless regression testing Very quick development

5. What is the “ideal”
dev/tester ratio?
Dev Tester ?
Devs Tester ?
Devs Tester ?
X Devs Y Testers ?

6. Where may problems
happen? Can’t implement
what they want
Can’t explain
requirements
Customer
Existing functionality is Dev Team
broken when new is ready

7. Developer is the root of evil!

8. Instead of
control
lets fix it!

9. People can’t read minds and any communication channels lose data
II. BROKEN REQUIREMENTS
CHANNEL

10. Divide work in small pieces

11. Discuss everything in details
before start implementing

12. Use prototypes and mockups

13. Make customers accept
results of development
responsibly

14. Even very good developer can make stupid mistake
III. DEVELOPERS MAKE MISTAKES

15. Team design session
before implementation

16. 100% Code Review

17. Pair programming for the
most complex parts

18. Detailed static code analysis

19. Stable releasable trunk

20. Strong definition of DONE
Can I start testing
this new feature?
Yes, it is done!
But I can’t even build
the product…
Ops, I forgot to
commit some files...

21. TDD at all levels
ATDD TDD
Customer’s Tests Programmers’ Tests
Acceptance Fixtures Production Unit Integration
Tests Code Tests Tests

22. Existing functionality must never be broken
IV. IMPLEMENTED ONCE, WORKING
FOREVER

23. Build safety net from
completely automated tests

24. Global Continuous
Integration

25. This role is always needed, but can be played by different people
V. TESTER IS A ROLE, NOT A PERSON

26. Magic happens when
everybody know
that there are
no testers

27. Team members can
play different roles

28. Shared
responsibility
for quality
is built

29. Give development process what it really needs
VI. HOW TO SURVIVE? PLAY RIGHT
ROLE!

30. Help developers to do
slicing development

31. Perform much
exploratory testing

32. Help customer to
express his minds

34. @xpinjection
http://xpinjection.com
mikalai.alimenkou@xpinjection.com