If testers sit passively through agile planning, important testing activities will be missed or glossed over. Testing late in the sprint becomes a bottleneck, quickly diminishing the advantages of agile development. However, testers can actively advocate for customers’ concerns while helping the team implement robust solutions. Rob Sabourin shows how testers contribute to the estimation, task definition, clarification, and the scoping work required to implement user stories.

1. W3!
Concurrent)Session)
4/10/2013)10:30)AM)
)
)
)
"The Tester’s Role in Agile Planning"
)
)
)
Presented by:
Rob Sabourin
AmiBug.com
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Brought(to(you(by:(
)
)
)
340)Corporate)Way,)Suite)300,)Orange)Park,)FL)32073)
888#268#8770!∙!904#278#0524!∙!sqeinfo@sqe.com!∙!www.sqe.com!
!

2. !
!
!
!
!!!
!!!Rob!Sabourin!
!!!AmiBug.com!!
!!!
!
Rob Sabourin, P. Eng., has more than thirty years of management
experience leading teams of software development professionals. A
well-respected member of the software engineering community, Rob
has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top
professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and
writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and
internationalization. Rob wrote I am a Bug!, the popular software
testing children's book; works as an adjunct professor of software
engineering at McGill University; and serves as the principle
consultant (and president/janitor) of AmiBug.Com, Inc. Contact Rob
at rsabourin@amibug.com.!

3. 1
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 1
The Tester’s Role
in Agile Planning
Robert Sabourin
President
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
Montreal, Canada
rsabourin@amibug.com
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
Slide 2
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012
• Robert Sabourin ,
Software Evangelist
• President
• AmiBug.Com Inc.
• Montreal, Quebec,
Canada
• rsabourin@amibug.com

4. 2
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 3
What is the problem?
Testing silo
Not really done
Shallow testing
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 4
Tester participation
Not invited
Not involved
Not engaged

5. 3
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 5
What happens?
Testers are bored
Programmers dominate
discussion
“Quality discussions” don’t take
place
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
• “Testers attend Scrum
meetings but are bored
to tears”
• “Testers do not engage
in discussions”
• “Planning is driven by
programmers debating
how to do things”
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 6

6. 4
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 7
Testing ideas
Limited
Repetitive
Experience bound
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 8
Tester participation
Why check?
Why think?
Why bother?

7. 5
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 9
Thoughtless planning
“Test the story”
Template activities
Document centric
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 10
Waterfall inertia
Test requirements
Test scripts
Test executions

8. 6
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 11
Locked into silly approach
Tool centric workflow
Job relates to using a tool
Tool takes thinking out
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 12
Agile planning
Less paperwork
More thinking
Combine dev & test

9. 7
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 13
Defining done
Organizational
Who decides
How do we know?
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 14
Undefined done
Business risks
Technical risks
Inconsistent testing

10. 8
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 15
Weak examples of done
Developer says …
Stakeholder says …
Calander says …
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 16
Product backlog
Customer originates
Product owner prioritizes
Single wringable neck

11. 9
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 17
The tester and the backlog
Tester elicits story tests (checks)
Story tests are clear examples
Story tests are acceptance
criteria (fit)
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 18
Story tests include
Normal flow
Alternate flow
Error flow

12. 10
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 19
Story tests collected for
Functional requirements
Non functional requirements
Product deliverables
(documentation, training etc)
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 20
Grooming sessions
Clarify story
Elicit story tests
Size stories

13. 11
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
• “Tester can also
propose backlog
entries”
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 21
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 22
Planning meeting style
Per Sprint
Per Story
Hybrid

14. 12
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
• “Sprint plan is dynamic”
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 23
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 24
Testing
Tasks
Infrastructure
Data
Customer facing
Non functional
Robustness
Exploratory charters
Development facing
Business rules
Information
Learning

15. 13
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 25
Infrastructure Tools
Frameworks
Test Automation
Test Environments
Test Data
Test Equipment
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 26
Data Generation
Capturing
Organization
Validation
Modeling
Scripting
Migration
Synchronization

16. 14
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 27
Customer facing Story Testing
Cross-Functional Testing
Non story related functionality
Testing with customer data
Pairwise combination testing
Pareto combination testing
Elicit usage scenarios from
customers
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 28
Non functional Accessibility
Auditability
Availability
Backup / Recovery
Capacity
Compatibility
Compliance testing

17. 15
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 29
Non functional Deployment / Installation / Patching
Documentation, Help, Training
Dynamic analysis
Efficiency
Environment
Failure management
Internationalization, Localization
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 30
Non functional Interoperability
Load (many concurrent threads)
Operability
Performance
Review framework data
Scalability
Security

18. 16
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 31
Non functional Static analysis
Stress
Usability
Volume (High)
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 32
Robustness Software Breaking
Failure simulation
Timeout across multiple tiers, handshaking failure
Buffering between tiers
Transaction arrival rates
Corrupt or lost data
Error recovery
Stress testing
Data fuzzing

19. 17
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 33
Exploratory
charters
Capability confirmation
Creative Ideas
Cross Story Relationships
End to End
Experience based charters
Gaps in story testing
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 34
Exploratory
charters
Gaps in unit testing
Sequences of operations
State models
Usage Scenarios
White Box
Resource contention sharing

20. 18
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 35
Regression
Related
Automate regression testing
Design new regression tests
Exploratory regression testing (focus)
Run unit test regression suite
Run story test regression suite
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 36
Development
facing
Features are controllable via API
States are observable via API
Add fixtures for story tests
Create test automation scripts
Design tests for TDD
Create executable story tests
Structural tests
Integration tests
Design review
Code review

21. 19
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 37
Business rules Constraints
Decision tables
Workflow
Regulations
Conflicts
Business analysis
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 38
Information
related
Sharing with other teams
Sharing with stakeholders
Sharing within the team
Mandated documents
Demos

22. 20
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 39
Learning Development models
Business models
Technology
Tools & techniques
How system is used
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 40
agile team

23. 21
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 41
flexible
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 42
graceful

24. 22
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 43
philosophy
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 44
proudly proponder

25. 23
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 45
recommending
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 46
passionate pleader

26. 24
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 47
ardent advocate
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 48
sage advisor

27. 25
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 49
team member
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 50
social responsibility

28. 26
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 51
ethics
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
The Tester’s Role in Agile
Planning
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 52
wise counsellor

29. 27
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
March 27, 2013 © Robert Sabourin, 2012 Slide 53
Thank You
• Questions?