Keynote talk in Agile Testing days Asia - Mar 2-3, 2017 Bangalore

1. There is no such thing called Agile
Testing
A keynote address in an Agile Testing conference
ShriniKulkarni
Feb 2017

2. Agile
Height of Tolerance and inclusivity …..

3. One Team
Dev
Test BA
QA /Process
SDET/SET
One Team
Once upon
a time …..

4. Time Changes …..
What is the profile of Tester in Agile?
Is it not same as requirement analysis
by testers and testability check?
When and why on the earth we should have part team
approach? Who created these partitions ?
why and when on the earth this
responsibility is vested on one team ?
Faster Feedback - All of a sudden – the word feedback has become very important Why now ?
Every one in the team is responsible for quality –
Whole Team approach ….
Help business stakeholderto write testableuser stories and
acceptance criteria –
We do not have any testers in our
Team. Everyone Tests .. BUT

5. So many words in Agile world that contain “Test”
TESTFIRST
TESTEARLY
TESTLAST
TESTDRIVEN
LEFT SHiFT TESTING
TEST ALONG – TESTWITH DEVELOPERS
ContinuousTESTING
What testers in Agile projects do ?
ExploratoryTESTING
Acceptance TEST driven
=============
BDD
SBE
MDD
FDD
DDD ?
Anything that everyone in the team
(can) (should) (would) DO

6. Identifying Agile …..
&
Products of Strong Culture and Rituals - Stereotypes

7. Stereotype Agile Tester
• Manual Testing is bad …. 100% tests should be automated
• All testing is some sort of extension of programming activity –
anything left if at all – it is exploratory testing.
• More worried about stuff that others do than testing
• Eats cucumber Salad - Executable requirements …
• Discontinuous integration ?
• Is a good Chef - DevOps
• Someone who is very conscious of his/her T-shirt Size
So WHAT ?

8. If there is nothing called
Agile testing … why are we
here…. Listening to you ?

9. There are some beautiful ideas ….
• Dev Test Pairing
• Continuous Integration
• Agile Pyramid
• Light Documentation of Testing artifacts
• Unit Testing
• Agile Quadrant
• BDD/Gherkin Stories
• Embrace Change
• SHOW and TELL – Value of Seeing
• Open source tools repository
Anything else ….. That is good in Agile ?
Independent to Interdependent
Breaking functional Silos

10. What successful testers do….
• Learn technology, programming – write code, install software, create
test data
• Practice testing (doing testing)
• Work with developers
• Learn business domains
• Talk to customers, prod support
• Read requirement documents
• Support activities for the team if time permits
• Dissolve walls between teams

11. Programming | Automation | Networks | Internet | Database | Mobile |
SDLC | Domain | Unit Testing | Design
Cognitive Skills
• Questioning
• Critical thinking
• Imagination
• Modeling/Design
• Skepticism
• Math/Logic/Stats
People Skills
• Persuasion
• Communication
• Delegation
Tester Role when came into
being as distinct from that of
a programmer – Skills looked
some what similar to this.
Agile did not change to a
great extent.
Agile made some of the
broader skills mandatory
Ability to work outside core area
SpecialtyandKeyExpertise

12. Culture change we are seeking to
make Agile truly work WILL NOT
HAPPEN
A Prophecy ….

13. Why …. ?
• Humans … [ we seek Processes, Tools, Best Practices ]
• Humans are unpredictable, often lazy, Greedy …
• We are never happy …
• With Humans - Can’t Scale …
• With Humans – Can’s make continuous profits
• Yet we see AI as future when have not understood intelligence fully
• Can you explain why many intelligent people do silly and unimaginable things
• But you can’t take humans out of equation …
You can change culture in which Agile Truly – Take humans out

14. Some Takeaway for everyone ….
Managers …
• Seek people with real skills
• Do what works in your
context
• Bring Diversity in the team
All others ….
• Bit of critical thinking and
understandinghistory of ideas helps
• Refocus yourefforts on delivering
value
• Have fun
Testers With Agile
Title …..
• Improve testing skills
• Do not get locked to specific
toolset or methodology
• Get involved inthe team
• Kill the tiltle
Testers Without
Agile Title …..
• Improve testing skills
• Develop Broader skills that
make you acceptablein
variety of contexts
• You are fine with out being
called as “Agile Tester”

15. Keep your Vigil On …..
“ This …. shouldserve as a reminder to
us all... Talk aboutthe virtues of what
we know and avoid bashing that which
we do not.
You obviously see Agile as a threat, you
should blog about that! ”

16. Thank you
shrinik@gmail.com
http://shrinik.blogspot.com
@shrinik