The increase in use of Agile methodology to deliver large projects has changed the way the industry looks as testing. The skill set required for Agile testing is vastly different from what the current crop of testers are used to.

1. Agile Day Conference
Evolving to agile
testing - The Journey
by Brijesh Prabhakar
!
25 July 2014

2. Challenges facing the testing community
Source: www.versionone.com
Trend towards greater adoption of Agile Lack of agile focus in testing

3. Current state of
testing

4. `
The Assembly Line in the Factory Model
Vision
Requirements,
Plan, Design
Business
Validation
Realised
Value
ChangeChange
Change
Change
Regulation
Business!
Scenario
Change in Vision
Budget, Time!
Constraints
Code / Develop
Test
Factory Model
Change is Costly, Time Consuming and Consensus Driven

5. The Factory Floor: Testing Team
`
Code / Develop
Test
The testing factory model characterised by:
❖ Specialisation of testing skills / roles
❖ Functions independent of dev and business
❖ Interpretation of Requirements drive testing
❖ Cost based RoI for Automation
❖ Metrics focussed on productivity, quality, coverage
❖ Team mainly composed for “Manual” Testers
❖ Automation, Performance testing skills are niche
❖ Team is usually prepared for the last minute “Sprint”
❖ Work is more hectic towards the end
Test Lead / Manager
Manual Testers
Automation Manual Testers

6. Future proofing
Testing

7. Effecting the Change - Steps towards Evolution
Agile Principles / Manifesto Change required by “Traditional” Testers
Focus on useful software - Customer Satisfaction From defects to what the business values
Embrace and welcome changes to requirements From “being the last to know” to motivated change
agents
Working software delivered frequently From discrete testing cycles to continuous testing
Cooperation between business and developers From independent testing to collaborative testing
Co-located teams
Distributed agile teams have become a norm - get
used to it
Progress measured by working software
From measuring productivity and defects to story
based metrics
Sustainable progress at a constant pace From the last minute dash to testing everyday
Simplicity and art of maximising work not done Structuring of test deliverables

8. Unlearning - the tough bit!
Skillsets
• The agile mindset can be an acquired skill. Incorporate Agile training prior to
project start. Invest in continuous learning
• Re-purpose purely manual testers to contribute to Technology, Automation, etc
Tools &
Techniques
• Adopt techniques like Model Based Testing, OATs, Virtualisation etc
• Feature testing rather than audit approach
Adaptability
• Continuous and evolving estimations as opposed to rigid initial estimates
• Testing should be part of change initiation process rather than a consumer of such
information
Measurement
• Move away from testing productivity based metrics
• Focus on metrics that indicate customer acceptance, test automation, product
quality, coverage
Automation
• Transition to Time based RoI from Cost based RoI
• Transition from Regression Automation to Progressive Automation
• All testers (and developers) should contribute towards automation

9. Repurposing testing for an Agile world
❖ Indian IT has over 120,000 testers today; a vast majority
of them are new to Agile
❖ Entry level training for testers needs to incorporate Agile
methodologies in their curriculum
❖ Greater exposure to technology for testers