Lessons learned in agile romania

Romania Open AgileMay 2010

Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc.Copyright 2010

TakeawaysTakeaways

Symptoms vs. problemsl l dFour lessons learned

For each lessonThe problemhow to recognize the problem (the symptoms)o to ecog e t e p ob e (t e sy pto s)practical ideas you can take today

….. But first, what agile to me!

Copyright 2010 DragonFire Inc.

2

• practice iterative, incremental development• encourage active customer participation• demand whole team collaboration• demand whole team collaboration• test features as they are coded• deliver business value at regular intervals at a sustainable pace

• adapt their processes based on feedback…how hard can this be? ………….


…how hard can this be? ………….

• Question ‐‐What is the real problem?• Ask ‐‐‐Why why why why and why?Ask Why, why, why, why....and why?• Too many times we solve the wrong thing• Use retrospectives to identify symptoms• Use retrospectives to identify symptoms


The ProblemThe Problem

The feedback is too late to fix anything becauseo Your testing is at the end of the iteration or eveno Your testing is at the end of the iteration or even worse, in the next iteration


• Us vs them vocabulary• Us vs. them vocabulary

• Testers don’t know what to test

• Testing tasks carried to the next iteration

• Bugs aren’t fixed during the iteration

• Teams have defined ‘done‐done’


TRY ...TRY ...

Whole team approach o the team committed to testing, qualityg, q yo the team solves problemso Testers come to planning sessionsp go Anyone can pick up a task

Power of Three Add valueAdd value


• Practice ATDD ◦ (Acceptance Test Driven Dev)

• Give tests to programmers earlyp g y• Break stories up smaller <3 days• Slice stories vertically• Slice stories vertically• Create feature teams, not

t tcomponent teams


• The team guesses at implementationk l “ ” h• Team takes longer to get “it” right

• Requirements are misunderstood


• Requirement bugs are found in d iproduction

• Bugs aren’t true software issues◦ Data issues◦ Human error problems

• Team is spending time understanding bugs


• Chose a piece of the business to learn• Work with the customer to define feature level• Work with the customer to define feature level acceptance testsk d d h h• Take time to understand what the customer

really needs• Ask “what problem are we trying to solve?”


• No ‘potentially shippable product’ at the end f it tiof every iteration

• No safety net for checking existing f lfunctionality


• Regression tests are not run every dayi i◦ or even every iteration

• Testers spend their time testingd◦ and retesting

• Bugs find their way back• No exploratory testing


• Tackle small chunksh l h• Choose tools so that ◦ Testers and developers can

ll b tcollaborate◦ Developers can help automateU th il t ti id• Use the agile testing pyramid


Lesson 4: Don’t get complacent!g p


Or let stress get in the way


Recognize complacency or panic whenRecognize complacency or panic whenRecognize complacency or panic when…Recognize complacency or panic when…

• Old habits resurface

• You hear “We don’t have time for that”

• New people influence your process negatively

• Tests aren’t refactored or reviewedTests aren t refactored or reviewed

• You forget to keep the tests running green


• Make the process visiblep

• Make the metrics visibleMake the metrics visible

• Understand the why behind the process• Understand the why behind the process

i fi d bl• Use your retrospectives to find problems


Whole TeamWhole TeamParticipation

Automate Regression Tests

Collaborate

Practice to

Provide

Practice to prevent

complacency Be involved


feedback earlyp y

Now AvailableAgile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

By Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

www.agiletester.ca

My contact info

www.janetgregory.caj g g yhttp://janetgregory.blogspot.com/[email protected]


• www.lisacrispin.com• agile‐[email protected]• www.testobsessed.com• www.testingreflections.com• vwww.mountaingoatsoftware.com – Mike Cohn’s web site (and all his books)

• Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Lean Software ( )Development, 2003 Addison‐Wesley (series of 3)

• Jean Tabaka, Collaboration Explained, 2006 Addison‐WesleyLi C i i d Ti H T i E P i 2002• Lisa Crispin and Tip House, Testing Extreme Programming, 2002 Addison‐Wesley

• Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto org/


Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/

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Lessons learned in agile romania

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