Testing as Exploration
aka. Continuous Delivery without
Automation
Maaret Pyhäjärvi
Email: <maaret@iki.fi> | Twitter: maaretp
Maaret Pyhäjärvi
Nimeä | Attribution (Finland)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/fi/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/fi/deed.en

1. LET’S TALK ABOUT
EXPLORATORY TESTING
?

Things Can Look Different from
Different Perspectives

Realizations about Nature of
Testing
20
16
1639
5±2
4

Exploratory Testing:
Better tests, better testers!
• An approach, not a technique
• Find unknown unknowns
• Disciplined
• Test is a performance, not artifact
– Artifacts support human
memory
– Many forms: e.g. checklists and
automation
• Exploratory performance testing,
Exploratory test automation,
Exploratory regression testing
Test-related
learning
Design of new
tests
Test execution
Result
interpretation
5

Exploratory Testing:
Learning & Modeling
”A day’s work”
Vision (“Sandbox”) Current Charter
Other Charters Details
Bug
Reports
Perception of
quality and
coverage
Quality
ReportDebriefing
Tester
Test
Manager
Past
Results
Obstacles
Outlook
Feelings
?
#
xCharter backlog of the future
testing
Out of
budget
Next in
importance!
#, ?, x, +
20:20:60
Session sheets of the past testing
Idea of
exploration
Metrics
summary
Coachin
g
6
Playbooks
Coverage outlines

2. CONTINUOUS DELIVERY
WITHOUT AUTOMATION

Where
does this
say fast?
Where does
this say
automation
?

A Bit of Background
• 3 years into a web based (.NET/C#)
product
• 1:8 tester:developer ratio
• Missing agile technical practices:
test automation non-existent
• Scrum-like monthly releases for first
2 years
– Releases late
– Releases not tested well enough
• Negative cycle of failing with
estimates eating team morale
• Jira in a central role with estimates
and burndown

Going for Continuous Delivery

The Main Driver for Change:
Testing
Scheduled release
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Testing
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
R1 R2 R3
Done
includes
Tested
Schedule
over
Quality
SCRUM + SCHEDULED DELIVERY with continuous integration
KANBAN + CONTINUOUS DELIVERY

Enablers that Made Timing Just
Right
• Henri Karhatsu and #NoEstimates –
experience report
• Availability of Git in Visual Studio without
plugins
• Problems with schedules in Scrum
• Lean and value delivery focus in Product
Management

Changing How We Managed Our
Work: Setting up Jira Kanban
Removed
hour &
story point
estimates
Agreed in
WIP for
each
phase
Agreed on
swarming
Updated
issue types

Branches and Test
Environments
Feature Test
Environment
Feature branches
on-demand builds
“Developers think
this can be tested”
Development
Test
Environment
Integration branch
build-on-checkin
“Developers think
this can be
released”
Acceptance
Test
Environment
Master branch with
fixes and merges
from integration
on-demand builds
“Release next
morning”

Continuous Deployment but
Significant Lead Times
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Change to
Master
Integration
to master
Feature to
integration
Developers drive the decision on what
they want feedback on

Exploratory Testing Enables
Continuous Deployment
• Every Jira task gets planned for
– Sometimes we go with developer
testing only
– Sometimes we test extensively
• Exploratory Planning
– No set test cases
– Talking to developers and reflecting
to a model of of use created through
earlier explorations
– Actionable information first –principle
– Production monitoring is an option for
getting information

Changes
• Active discussion about schedules and
merging, and needs of testing in the
branches
• More pairing for testing the features
• More group work on defining the features
• Introducing Flowdock due to increased
need to collaborate; integrating logs,
emails
• Focus on getting better (scope of test
automation; refactoring; pairing and group
work; individuals’ skills)

Testers don’t break
your code, they
break your illusions
about the code.
-- adapted from James Bach