This document discusses 10 common myths about software testing in an agile environment. It argues that while test-driven development (TDD) is useful, a variety of testing techniques are still needed including manual testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing. It also notes that as project size increases, test automation becomes necessary to efficiently run all the necessary test cycles. Overall, the document advocates for testers to be actively involved throughout the agile process to help ensure software quality.
xUnit and TDD: Why and How in Enterprise Software, August 2012Justin Gordon
Â
âA comprehensive suite of JUnit tests is one of the most import aspects of a software project because it reduces bugs, facilitates adding new developers, and enables refactoring and performance tuning with confidence. Test-driven development (TDD) is the best way to build a suite of tests. And the Dependent Object Framework is the best way to test against database objects.â This presentation covers the benefits of TDD along with practical advice on how to implement TDD in complex projects.
Pragmatic Not Dogmatic TDD Agile2012 by Joseph Yoder and Rebecca Wirfs-BrockJoseph Yoder
Â
This presentation challenges the "norm" for TDD. Testing should be an integral part of your daily programming practice. But you donât always need to derive your code via many test-code-revise-retest cycles to be test-driven. Some find it more natural to outline a related set of tests first, and use those test scenarios to guide them as they write code. Once theyâve completed a âgood enoughâ implementation that supports the test scenarios, they then write those tests and incrementally fix any bugs as they go. As long as you donât write hundreds of lines of code without any testing, there isnât a single best way to be Test Driven. Thereâs a lot to becoming proficient at TDD. Developing automated test suites, refactoring and reworking tests to eliminate duplication, and testing for exceptional conditions, are just a few. Additionally, acceptance tests, smoke tests, integration, performance and load tests support incremental development as well. If all this testing sounds like too much work, wellâŠletâs be practical. Testing shouldnât be done just for testingâs sake. Instead, the tests you write should give you leverage to confidently change and evolve your code base and validate the requirements of the system. Thatâs why it is important to know what to test, what not to test, and when to stop testing.
My presentation at Arvato Systems about TDD. This presentation is based on my own knowledge and experience. I go through two full TDD cycles programmed in Eclipse presenting the written code in the presentation.
At Grazitti Interactive, we know that early and prompt bug fixing can save a lot of time and resources. We therefore, follow international test parameters to provide end- to - end quality assurance testing and ensure smooth end user experience. Starting with creating an exhaustive list of test cases, we do various types of testing including smoke testing, functional testing, and regression testing; and also provide automated testing expertise.
Software Architects traditionally have been expected to be well versed in the technologies and software platforms on which their organization run, as well as the businessses they serve. Software Architect's need to balance both sides of this coin: business and technology.
Today traditional ways in which architects engage with development groups often conflict with Agile methods. This presentation explores best practices for architects working in an Agile world and ways in which Agile methods might benefit architects. Additionally it attempts to address some of the concerns that many architects express about Agile, and attempts to provide practical ideas as to how architects and agile development teams can become allies.
xUnit and TDD: Why and How in Enterprise Software, August 2012Justin Gordon
Â
âA comprehensive suite of JUnit tests is one of the most import aspects of a software project because it reduces bugs, facilitates adding new developers, and enables refactoring and performance tuning with confidence. Test-driven development (TDD) is the best way to build a suite of tests. And the Dependent Object Framework is the best way to test against database objects.â This presentation covers the benefits of TDD along with practical advice on how to implement TDD in complex projects.
Pragmatic Not Dogmatic TDD Agile2012 by Joseph Yoder and Rebecca Wirfs-BrockJoseph Yoder
Â
This presentation challenges the "norm" for TDD. Testing should be an integral part of your daily programming practice. But you donât always need to derive your code via many test-code-revise-retest cycles to be test-driven. Some find it more natural to outline a related set of tests first, and use those test scenarios to guide them as they write code. Once theyâve completed a âgood enoughâ implementation that supports the test scenarios, they then write those tests and incrementally fix any bugs as they go. As long as you donât write hundreds of lines of code without any testing, there isnât a single best way to be Test Driven. Thereâs a lot to becoming proficient at TDD. Developing automated test suites, refactoring and reworking tests to eliminate duplication, and testing for exceptional conditions, are just a few. Additionally, acceptance tests, smoke tests, integration, performance and load tests support incremental development as well. If all this testing sounds like too much work, wellâŠletâs be practical. Testing shouldnât be done just for testingâs sake. Instead, the tests you write should give you leverage to confidently change and evolve your code base and validate the requirements of the system. Thatâs why it is important to know what to test, what not to test, and when to stop testing.
My presentation at Arvato Systems about TDD. This presentation is based on my own knowledge and experience. I go through two full TDD cycles programmed in Eclipse presenting the written code in the presentation.
At Grazitti Interactive, we know that early and prompt bug fixing can save a lot of time and resources. We therefore, follow international test parameters to provide end- to - end quality assurance testing and ensure smooth end user experience. Starting with creating an exhaustive list of test cases, we do various types of testing including smoke testing, functional testing, and regression testing; and also provide automated testing expertise.
Software Architects traditionally have been expected to be well versed in the technologies and software platforms on which their organization run, as well as the businessses they serve. Software Architect's need to balance both sides of this coin: business and technology.
Today traditional ways in which architects engage with development groups often conflict with Agile methods. This presentation explores best practices for architects working in an Agile world and ways in which Agile methods might benefit architects. Additionally it attempts to address some of the concerns that many architects express about Agile, and attempts to provide practical ideas as to how architects and agile development teams can become allies.
This presentation is simply for motivating developers towards test automation and test-driven development. It discusses lightly unit testing, mocking and integration testing, too.
I recently did a talk on Agile and the importance of people over role/process obsessions. I didnt use this in the end, as I decided to adopt a more natural and example-based approach. Feel free to use however - the web is built on plagiarism after all ;)
A quick paced introduction to "Test Driven Development" (TDD) in an agile environment. The TDD philosophy states that you should develop your tests and then write code to make your tests pass and satisfy user requirements.
Agile Software Development and Test Driven Development: Agil8's Dave Putman 3...agil8 Ltd
Â
David Putman of agil8âs training and consulting team discussed the anti-patterns observed in organisations introducing technical practices into their Agile software development teams, and how to avoid them.
This presentation was made at agil8âs Community Event for past students, clients, colleagues and agil8 associates on 30 October 2014.
Sterling Barton Movemements of a Hypnotic NatureBrent Barton
Â
This presentation focuses on an exercise the helps us understand emergent design, iterations (if you only touch it once, you are not iterating), teamwork and operating from high-level requirements. This is based on cross-functional, self-organizing teams and overlapping development phases that are the roots of Scrum
Pair Programming, TDD and other impractical thingsMarcello Duarte
Â
"Why should we write our tests first? Isn't that going to slow my development?" "What? Assigning a single task to 2 developers? How is that efficient? What a waste of resources!" "Look, in the perfect world your advises are great, but I have a project to finish here." In this talk Marcello explores efficiency in contrast to effectiveness. He looks into how practices, traditionally accepted as efficient, sometimes turn out to be less effective than a few "impractical" things he has come across.
How Quality Assurance is Important in Development Life Cycleijtsrd
Â
In recent days the requirement of quality has grown up universally. Away back, quality culture was practiced only by software industries, today it has also been embraced by companies using technology in their internal projects. The project should not be risked due to contingency and advancement that may come along the way. This is one of the precepts of software quality. Capacity development are imminent, but must be planned for another sprint, unless there is an urgent need on the part of the customer. The software architecture must adhere to the specified requirements. It can be innovative, lasting and still try to solve, not only the predicted problems, but also the unforeseen ones. It is at this point that the development team must glimpse what is really desired and not just what was asked for. One of the biggest causes of failure in software projects is lack of scope. In the eagerness to start work soon, the scope definition phase is reduced to the extreme. The result of this is a large number of corrections made during a sprint for a feature that was not properly planned. Aayush Tiwari "How Quality Assurance is Important in Development Life Cycle" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-4 , June 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd31580.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/computer-science/other/31580/how-quality-assurance-is-important-in-development-life-cycle/aayush-tiwari
I wrote this paper for my Technical Writing for the Professions class. I conducted more than 30 interviews with a group of requirements analysts, software testers, and software developers to discover the effectiveness of the requirements documentation developed within one organization. This paper discusses the findings of that research and recommends several actions for organizations facing similar issues.
Quality Jam: BDD, TDD and ATDD for the EnterpriseQASymphony
Â
During Quality Jam 2016 I had the privilege of presenting with one of QASymphony's earliest customers, Better Cloud, on how methodologies like BDD, TDD and ATDD scale for the enterprises. Adam Satterfield is the VP of Quality Assurance at Bettercloud and has been in QA for many years; he has taught me a lot about Behavior Driven Development, Test Driven Development, Acceptance Test Driven Development. In the session we share a new way of testing-- what Adam and I believe to be the next generation of testing development.
We know that there are several ways to do testing and we are just showing one new way to do it - If this session doesn't inspire action, hopefully it will at least give you and your team something to think about.
This presentation is simply for motivating developers towards test automation and test-driven development. It discusses lightly unit testing, mocking and integration testing, too.
I recently did a talk on Agile and the importance of people over role/process obsessions. I didnt use this in the end, as I decided to adopt a more natural and example-based approach. Feel free to use however - the web is built on plagiarism after all ;)
A quick paced introduction to "Test Driven Development" (TDD) in an agile environment. The TDD philosophy states that you should develop your tests and then write code to make your tests pass and satisfy user requirements.
Agile Software Development and Test Driven Development: Agil8's Dave Putman 3...agil8 Ltd
Â
David Putman of agil8âs training and consulting team discussed the anti-patterns observed in organisations introducing technical practices into their Agile software development teams, and how to avoid them.
This presentation was made at agil8âs Community Event for past students, clients, colleagues and agil8 associates on 30 October 2014.
Sterling Barton Movemements of a Hypnotic NatureBrent Barton
Â
This presentation focuses on an exercise the helps us understand emergent design, iterations (if you only touch it once, you are not iterating), teamwork and operating from high-level requirements. This is based on cross-functional, self-organizing teams and overlapping development phases that are the roots of Scrum
Pair Programming, TDD and other impractical thingsMarcello Duarte
Â
"Why should we write our tests first? Isn't that going to slow my development?" "What? Assigning a single task to 2 developers? How is that efficient? What a waste of resources!" "Look, in the perfect world your advises are great, but I have a project to finish here." In this talk Marcello explores efficiency in contrast to effectiveness. He looks into how practices, traditionally accepted as efficient, sometimes turn out to be less effective than a few "impractical" things he has come across.
How Quality Assurance is Important in Development Life Cycleijtsrd
Â
In recent days the requirement of quality has grown up universally. Away back, quality culture was practiced only by software industries, today it has also been embraced by companies using technology in their internal projects. The project should not be risked due to contingency and advancement that may come along the way. This is one of the precepts of software quality. Capacity development are imminent, but must be planned for another sprint, unless there is an urgent need on the part of the customer. The software architecture must adhere to the specified requirements. It can be innovative, lasting and still try to solve, not only the predicted problems, but also the unforeseen ones. It is at this point that the development team must glimpse what is really desired and not just what was asked for. One of the biggest causes of failure in software projects is lack of scope. In the eagerness to start work soon, the scope definition phase is reduced to the extreme. The result of this is a large number of corrections made during a sprint for a feature that was not properly planned. Aayush Tiwari "How Quality Assurance is Important in Development Life Cycle" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-4 , June 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd31580.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/computer-science/other/31580/how-quality-assurance-is-important-in-development-life-cycle/aayush-tiwari
I wrote this paper for my Technical Writing for the Professions class. I conducted more than 30 interviews with a group of requirements analysts, software testers, and software developers to discover the effectiveness of the requirements documentation developed within one organization. This paper discusses the findings of that research and recommends several actions for organizations facing similar issues.
Quality Jam: BDD, TDD and ATDD for the EnterpriseQASymphony
Â
During Quality Jam 2016 I had the privilege of presenting with one of QASymphony's earliest customers, Better Cloud, on how methodologies like BDD, TDD and ATDD scale for the enterprises. Adam Satterfield is the VP of Quality Assurance at Bettercloud and has been in QA for many years; he has taught me a lot about Behavior Driven Development, Test Driven Development, Acceptance Test Driven Development. In the session we share a new way of testing-- what Adam and I believe to be the next generation of testing development.
We know that there are several ways to do testing and we are just showing one new way to do it - If this session doesn't inspire action, hopefully it will at least give you and your team something to think about.
http://inarocket.com
Learn BEM fundamentals as fast as possible. What is BEM (Block, element, modifier), BEM syntax, how it works with a real example, etc.
Content personalisation is becoming more prevalent. A site, it's content and/or it's products, change dynamically according to the specific needs of the user. SEO needs to ensure we do not fall behind of this trend.
Lightning Talk #9: How UX and Data Storytelling Can Shape Policy by Mika Aldabaux singapore
Â
How can we take UX and Data Storytelling out of the tech context and use them to change the way government behaves?
Showcasing the truth is the highest goal of data storytelling. Because the design of a chart can affect the interpretation of data in a major way, one must wield visual tools with care and deliberation. Using quantitative facts to evoke an emotional response is best achieved with the combination of UX and data storytelling.
Evolving from Quality Assurance to Quality EngineeringTestingXperts
Â
Quality Assurance alone would not suffice to match the speed, persistence, and thoroughness that the Agile development and Shift-Left world demands today. Quality Engineering ensures that quality is not an after-thought.
Agile testing is the soware testing
methodology that stems from the Agile
soware development principles. The
essence of Agile testing practice is that it
incorporates testing into the dev process,
rather than keeping it a separate SDLC
phase.
A history and practical guide to Agile quality, mobile automation and risk-based testing strategies.
The role of software testing in the development process has evolved. No longer do testers validate only features and functionality. They play an integral role shaping the quality of the user experience â sussing out logical holes in the development and recommending adjustments to better serve users.
The resources available to testers have changed too. From mobile automation to sniffing tools. We analyze the current state of software testing and how teams must adapt to better serve users within their project budget.
+ Download our interactive device matrix and project quality overview tool, complete with visualizations for defect trends, issue severity and close rate data.
Gartner Research Director Thomas Murphy notes that software quality is often a poor misnomer for the current practice of risk management applied by most companies. Many organizations use risk management to mitigate delivery risk, typically at the expense of application quality. Learn about the importance of focusing on application structural quality to reduce business disruption risk in this Gartner-CAST paper.
Best 8 Practices to Ensure Quality Assurance (QA) in Software TestingCatherine William
Â
QA and testing in software quality Assurance Company ensure that the root causes of these and other types of vulnerabilities are identified and eliminated before they reach production. Here are some best practices to ensure your QA process is effective. https://www.impressico.com/services/offerings/software-quality-assurance/
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Â
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Â
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Â
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Â
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Â
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Â
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projectsâ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, youâre in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part âEssentials of Automationâ series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Hereâs what youâll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
Weâll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Donât miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Â
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Â
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as âpredictable inferenceâ.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
2. Introduction
The definition of agile testing can be described as follows:
âTesting practice for projects using agile technologies, treating
development as the customer of testing and emphasising a
test-first design philosophy. In agile development, testing is
integrated throughout the lifecycle, testing the software
throughout its development.â*
Agile is a methodology that is seeing increasingly widespread
adoption, and it is easy to understand why, especially if you
consider the developer and user point of view.
â All the agile approaches
have (at least) one
Users: Donât want to spend ages being quizzed in detail
about the exact requirements and processes for the whole
system, and then have to review a large specification, which
characteristic in they know could come back to haunt them.
common in that they Developers: Donât want to have to follow a tight specification,
impact the role of the without any expression of their own imagination and creative
â
QA professional. talents, especially if they can see a better way.
Yet for the QA professional an Agile approach can cause
discomfort â In the ideal world they would have a âfinishedâ
product to verify against a finished specification. To be asked
to validate a moving target against a changing backdrop is
counter intuitive. It means that the use of technology and
automation are much more difficult, and it requires a new
approach to testing, in the same way that it does for the users
and the developers.
All the agile approaches have (at least) one characteristic in
common in that they impact the role of the QA professional.
This in itself is not a bad thing when the outcome is a step
change for the better. However, when decisions are made on
the basis of an invalid paradigm, change is not always
analogous with progress. When a new paradigm is proposed
for software development, by software developers, it is not a
surprise that it is developer-centric. Abraham Maslow said that
âHe that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a
nail.â The responsibility of the QA profession is not to bury its
head and pretend that agile development will go away, it is
our responsibility to engage in discussion to ensure that
someone with a hammer is not pounding on a screw!
With the emergence of Test Driven Development** some
suggest the role of QA is now questionable citing Test Driven
Development (TDD) as the key to testing. But, what is most
*Definition taken from The Glossary of
Software Testing Terms from Original
important is that QA is directly involved in the agile scrums all
Software (www.origsoft.com) the way through, to be an integral part of the team designing
the tests, at the same time as the requirements and solutions
**Defined on Wikipedia as âA software
development technique consisting of short
evolve.
iterations where new test cases covering the
desired improvement or new functionality QA teams need to know the real impact of an Agile
are written first, then the production code
necessary to pass the tests is implemented,
methodology, there are boundless myths circulating the
and finally the software is refactored to industry. Here is our reply to ten of our favorite myths >>
accommodate changes.â
two Original Software
3. Ten QA Myths of Agile Testing
There are a number of comments and statements regarding
TDD and the QA function beginning to appear in articles on
the internet by so-called specialists, that are, at best,
misguided. This article responds to some of these myths and
highlights challenges that QA teams will need to face up to
and address in order to be successful in an increasingly agile
world.
Myth One: âYou only need to unit test.
TDD testing is sufficientâ
For the vast majority of commercial developments this simply
isnât true. Even strong proponents of agile development
recognise the need for their armory to include a range of
testing techniques. For example, Scott W. Ambler has a list of
twenty-one different testing techniques as part of his FLOOT
(Full Life Cycle Object-Oriented Testing) methodology,
including white box, black box, regression testing, stress
testing and UAT. (http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/floot.html)
TDD programmers rely on these tests to verify their code is
correct. If the requirements (test cases) are specified
incorrectly, then youâll build robust code that fails to meet the
objective.
Therefore, most agile projects include investigative testing
efforts (black-box), which support rather than compete with
white-box testing. Good investigative testing will reveal
problems that the developer missed before they get too far
downstream.
Myth Two: âYou can reuse unit tests to build a
regression test suiteâ
Some TDD proponents argue that conventional downstream
testing is unnecessary because every line of application code
has a corresponding test case; they suggest that by
reassembling unit tests, everything from User Acceptance
Tests to Regression Tests can be performed.
Although this sounds feasible, it isn't realistic, and hereâs why:
The granularity and objectives of white-box unit tests
developed in TDD serve a different purpose from downstream
black-box testing.
While the overall objective of a unit test is designed to prove
that the code will do what is expected, the aim of regression
testing is to ensure that no unexpected effects result from the
application code being changed. These two objectives are not
synonymous â e.g. checking that an attribute has a valid date
format, is not the same as checking that for a given input, the
value of the field contains an expected date.
three Original Software
4. Ten QA Myths of Agile Testing
Myth Three: âWe no longer need testers,
or automation toolsâ
Professional testers fulfill a different and equally valid role
from their development colleagues.
It is widely recognised that traditional test automation tools
have failed to live up to the hype of the vendors. Original
Softwareâs roots are as providers of products that improve the
productivity of the database testing environment. It was
because there were no adequate tools to provide User
interface testing that we extended our solutions into this
market sector; our heritage is aligned to effective testing
rather than screen-scraping automation. When we developed
TestDrive, we did it with the benefit of twenty years hindsight
of missed opportunities from the traditional vendors.
Often, TDD projects have at least as much test code as
application code and, therefore, are themselves software
applications. This test code needs to be maintained for the life
of the target application.
Myth Four: âUnit tests remove the need for
manual testingâ
Manual testing is a repetitive task; itâs expensive, boring and
error-prone. While TDD can reduce the amount of manual
effort needed for functional testing; it does not, remove the
need for further black-box testing (manual and automated).
By automatically capturing the testerâs process and
documenting their keystrokes and mouse-clicks, the tester will
have more time for the interesting, value-add activities, such
as testing complex scenarios that would be difficult or
impossible to justify automating. Though manual testing is a
time-consuming (and therefore expensive) way to find errors,
the costs of not finding them are often much higher.
Myth Five: âUser Acceptance Testing is no
longer necessaryâ
Within agile development, acceptance testing is often
positioned as working with the customer to resolve âincorrect
requirementsâ, rather than correcting functionality that does
not map to what the user needs. When the user initially
defines their requirements, they do it based on their initial
expectations. When they see the system âin the fleshâ they will
invariably come up with different, or additional, requirements.
While agile methods might reduce the frequency of this
happening, it is unreasonable to expect the approach to
resolve them entirely, so there should be no expectation that
user acceptance testing will be obviated. This is especially
true when it comes to the business user signing off approval
of the User Interface, since they may have envisaged
something different from the developer; which brings us nicely
to myth six...
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5. Ten QA Myths of Agile Testing
Myth Six: âAutomation is impossibleâ
Automation in the early stages of an agile project is usually
very tough, but as the system grows and evolves, some
aspects settle and it becomes appropriate to deploy
automation.
To begin with, almost all testing from a user and QA
perspective will be manual but this testing effort and design
can be beneficial later if captured and re-used.
Knowing the right time to automate is tough, so using
technology that proactively supports early manual testing but
provides a path to evolve this into automation is key.
Myth Seven: âDevelopers have adequate
testing skillsâ
If testing was easy everybody would do it and weâd deliver
perfect code every time. An independent testing team serves
as an objective third-party, able to see âthe big pictureâ, to
validate the functionality and quality of the deliverable. While
developers tend towards proving the system functions as
required, a good tester will be detached enough to ask âwhat
happens ifâŠ?â When you include business user testing as
well, you are more likely to have a system that is fit for
purpose.
Finally, and Iâm sure this point will be disputed, most
developers donât actually want to spend much time first writing
tests and then developing code to prove the tests work. Using
the collaborative process described below, the developer gets
ample assistance in describing the functional tests and can
focus on writing lean, accurate and robust code.
Myth Eight: âThe unit tests form 100% of your
design specificationâ
Whichever development method you use, before you develop
code you have to think about the requirements. While TDD
âdone wellâ may identify a fair percentage of the design
specification, there are still concerns about gaps between the
unit tests. The argument, that you need TDD to prove the
requirements are captured accurately, isnât substantiated by
history.
The V-model, for example, is a valid approach to
understanding testing requirements and by implication,
functional requirements. Like TDD, the V-model and most
other models, fall down when the practitionerâs approach is
rigid, while development processes are fluid. Whichever
approach you choose, correct thinking challenges each user
requirement by asking âhow would I test that?â The important
factor here is that test cases are challenged before they are
committed to code, otherwise youâll be doing a lot of recoding
and calling it ârefactoringâ. When requirements are refined
through collaboration, the developer receives a more robust
specification that is less likely to change because it has been
openly appraised from several peopleâs perspectives.
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6. Ten QA Myths of Agile Testing
Myth Nine: âTDD is applicable on every projectâ
As the size of the project increases, the time required to run
the tests also increases. This can be addressed by
partitioning either/both the project and/or the tests. Either
route results in tests that run at different frequencies
depending upon their relevance to the current coding effort.
This approach introduces the need for test planning and
execution management. To achieve this efficiently, in addition
to white-box testing, you need to be thinking about:
Integration Testing â âWhich tests do I need to run to ensure
the new code works seamlessly with the surrounding code?â
System Testing â âDoes the functionality supported by the
new code dovetail with functionality elsewhere in this system,
or in other systems within the process flow?â
Regression testing â âHow often do I need to run a
regression test to ensure there are no unforeseen impacts of
the new code?â Automated regression testing provides a
safety net that can affirm agile development techniques.
User Acceptance Testing â âWhile TDD (in collaboration
with business users) should ensure that a specific function
performs correctly, is the cumulative impact of changes still
acceptable to the business users?â
However, in todayâs environment it is unacceptable to think of
â
these testing stages as discrete serial activities. Often they
As the size of the will need to be run in parallel as we get a new âcode dropâ. As
the size of the project team increases (along with testing
project team increases effort), it is no longer acceptable for the tests to be
(along with testing considered âself-documentingâ. Whenever the number of
effort), it is no longer participants increases, the projectâs risks become exposed to
its membersâ different interpretations of the requirements â
acceptable for the tests the definition of what constitutes âsuccessâ can be
to be considered misconstrued.
âself-documentingâ.
â As the size of the project increases, so would the amount of
test code that needs to be developed. Any test code
developed needs to be supported for the life of the application
â effectively doubling the ongoing maintenance effort.
As the size of the testing workload increases the project
needs to add test automation to its armory, to minimize the
human intervention and elapsed times for each of these
testing cycles.
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7. Ten QA Myths of Agile Testing
Myth Ten: âDevelopers and Testers are like oil
and waterâ
Since the dawn of time there has often been a âthem and usâ
tension between developers and testers. This is usually a
healthy symbiotic relationship which, when working correctly,
provides a mutually beneficial relationship between the two
groups resulting in a higher quality deliverable for the
customer.
The discussion should be focused on:
Software delivery that meets business objectives
(fit for purpose, on time and on budget), not who
owns which part of the process.
What can testers contribute to the requirements
gathering phase to ensure they are involved in
the TDD process?
How can testers maximize reuse of the assets
created during the development phase?
Is there a role for the âtraditional testerâ in TDD,
or should they (like the developers) be acquiring
new skills to enable them to adapt to the new
paradigm?
How can developers and testers find mutual
benefit in exploiting new advances in software
development and testing tools?
Just as improvements in developerâs software tools and
â
methods have enabled a shift in development approaches,
...next generation next generation technology for test automation is similarly
reframing the opportunities for testers to automate earlier in
technology for test the delivery cycle without incurring the heavy burden of script
automation is similarly maintenance so often associated with traditional automation
tools.
reframing the
opportunities for testers
to automate earlier in
the delivery cycle...
â Conclusion
Agile projects are in fact an excellent opportunity for QA to
take leadership of the agile processes; who else is better
placed to bridge the gap between users and developers,
understand both what is required, how it can be achieved and
how it can be assured prior to deployment? QA should have a
vested interest in both âthe howâ and âthe resultâ, as well as
continuing to ensure that the whole evolving system meets the
business objectives and is fit for purpose. But it requires QA
professionals to be fluid and agile themselves, discarding
previous paradigms and focusing on techniques to optimise a
new strategy to testing.
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