As software practitioners focusing on technology issues, we often find that our messages to management and the business are either not heard or are misinterpreted. And sometimes we do not hear the messages that they need us to hear. Isabel Evans examines our natural ability to tell stories and how everyone’s built-in receptiveness to narratives will help you communicate productively about testing and quality. Isabel looks at how we can tell our testing stories in a way that is appealing to our audience. That means thinking about the role of oral, written, and visual representations of testing stories and practicing communicating through the analogies of novels, short stories, picture books, poems, and songs. Because we will need a variety of story formats for our testing messages to work best, Isabel shares how to adapt testing stories to different audiences. Learn how we can better listen to other people’s stories and adapt our listening style to different storytellers.

1. Telling Our Testing Stories
Isabel Evans - November 2016
Olá! Dia Bom
"Era uma vez..."

2. “Begin at the beginning and go on till
you come to the end: then stop.”
• About stories
• Who tells stories and who listens?
• Beginnings and headlines
• Brevity (haiku and diagrams)
• Serials and endings
• Telling stories and listening
– Scheherazade: the 1000 nights and 1 night
– The Severed Head
– The Grateful Beasts
• I’m going to tell you some stories
• You are going to think about testing while you listen…

3. Story tellers…
Bertrand Russell Winston Churchill José Saramago
Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner Doris Lessing
ssoa Antonio Lobo Antunes Luis Miguel Rocha Gil Vicente Migu
ohn Steinbeck Phil Roth Ray Bradbury Willa Cather Arthur Miller Alice Wal
alter de la Mare E Nesbit Terry Pratchett Isaac Asimov Enid Blyton Ian Ra
Mythmakers, Folk-tale Tellers, Poets, Novelists,
Dramatists, Musicians, Painters,
Nobel prize winners….
Grandmothers, Fathers,
Teachers, Children,
You and me…
and our colleagues

4. George Orwell “Why I write” (essay)
Sheer egoism
Aesthetic
enthusiasm
Political
purpose
Historical
impulse
Four
reasons to
write
To make
something
happen; to
influence
other people
To reflect on
what has
happened;
explain things
as they are
Desire to
seem clever
and be talked
about…
Pleasure in
good prose &
layout; also
pleasure in
sharing…

5. Starting your story…
It is related…
Once upon a time…
Attend!
Marley was dead: to begin with.
The girl screamed once, only the once.
How do you start your testing story?
Headlines?

7. Brevity is good…
How much I desire!
Inside my little satchel,
the moon, and flowers!
Basho

8. Computer Haiku
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

9. Testing Haiku…?
Simple tests are passing
But important tests failed!
Fix, test, then release.
Environment down?
Another day wasted when
We could have tested.
Explore and test the system.
Calm mind, systematic work,
Tell good and bad news.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Configuration error?

10. Diagrams
More defects found
before release of
product
Improve testing
Increased workload
Later, fast corrections that go
wrong
Fewer defects in
released products
Improved quality
Customer
pleasure
Improve reviews
Errors made and not found till
late
Reviews not done/poorly doneTesting not done/poorly done
Over-optimistic management
expectations
Over-optimistic customer
expectations
Failure to meet
customer
expectations
Management anger
Fear
Over-optimistic estimates &
plans
Increased queues - Not
possible to complete work in
time
Req/des/dev not done well
Work to fix earlier versions
Errors made and not found till
live
Poor technical architecture
choices
Complex problem area
Initial idea chosen not
challenged
Not asking for help
Defensive
behaviour
demotivation
No risk assessment
Moving targets (third
party & Dolphin)
Improvements
e.g. Acc Criteria,
testing
Architectural
complexity
Historical
accretions
Technical research
and prototyping
Management
pleasure
confidenceImprove project start up
estimating and reporting;
small, iterative
Better project scope
Small, iterative, Acc
crit/user story etc..
Improve Tech
processes eg
build
-ve Pride with fear
- ve Pride with fear
+ve Pride with
confidence
Silos and specialisation
(SPOFs)
Poor job design
Help people to see you are listening to their stories
Help people to listen to your stories

11. The
1000
nights
and
1 night
Isabel Evans Nov2015

12. Long project planning and reporting
Reporting to the big bosses? Telling people about bugs?
Writing a test plan or report? Implementing change?
What do they want from you?
What do you do if they don’t want your story?
Can you still keep them interested?
How long will you last?
Who can help you?
Use Repetition with variation
Isabel Evans Nov2015

13. 1001 nights – a happy ending?
Isabel Evans Nov2015

14. The
story
of the
severed
head
Isabel Evans Nov2015

15. Keeping it relevant and timely
What do you do if your team is gone?
Can you still keep giving advice?
How long will management listen for?
Do your stories help or hinder project progress?
Will they benefit the business?
Know when to stop…
Isabel Evans Nov2015

16. “Egyszer volt, hol nem volt..."
"...és boldogan éltek, amíg meg nem haltak." Isabel Evans Nov2015

17. Listening and reacting to people
Listen to the people not invited to the retrospectives
– act on their advice
Listen to the users and customer - and help them
Befriend the devs, PMs and BAs, help them
– then they will help you
Listen to people not understanding your stories and find a
new way to tell the stories
You don’t need to be heroic:
listen, help others, be patient,
tell storiesIsabel Evans Nov2015

18. Endings
Isabel Evans Nov2015

19. More defects found
before release of
product
Improve testing
Increased workload
Later, fast corrections that go
wrong
Fewer defects in
released products
Improved quality
Customer
pleasure
Improve reviews
Errors made and not found till
late
Reviews not done/poorly doneTesting not done/poorly done
Over-optimistic management
expectations
Over-optimistic customer
expectations
Failure to meet
customer
expectations
Management anger
Fear
Over-optimistic estimates &
plans
Increased queues - Not
possible to complete work in
time
Req/des/dev not done well
Work to fix earlier versions
Errors made and not found till
live
Poor technical architecture
choices
Complex problem area
Initial idea chosen not
challenged
Not asking for help
Defensive
behaviour
demotivation
No risk assessment
Moving targets (third
party & Dolphin)
Improvements
e.g. Acc Criteria,
testing
Architectural
complexity
Historical
accretions
Technical research
and prototyping
Management
pleasure
confidenceImprove project start up
estimating and reporting;
small, iterative
Better project scope
Small, iterative, Acc
crit/user story etc..
Improve Tech
processes eg
build
-ve Pride with fear
- ve Pride with fear
+ve Pride with
confidence
Silos and specialisation
(SPOFs)
Poor job design
Begin at the beginning and go on till
you come to the end: then stop.
AE
P H
4
Isabel Evans Nov2015
Isabel Evans Nov2015

20. Telling Our Testing Stories
Thank you
Isabel Evans
Nov 2016
ie@isabelevans.uk
www.isabelevans.uk
"...and they all lived happily ever after."
“...E todos eles viveram felizes para sempre.”