The original title of this talk is "Agile Testing, Uncertainty, Risk, and Why It All Works." That's still the topic of this talk, however after hearing so many misconceptions about testing simply because the name "Test" carries so much baggage in our industry, I decided to reframe my talk so as to avoid using the word "Test" at all in the first half. Instead, we'll focus on how fast feedback supports learning and empirical evidence trumps speculation.

1. Agile Testing, Risk,
Uncertainty, and Why It
All Works
(the updated for AGILEEE,
almost all new edition)
Elisabeth Hendrickson
Quality Tree Software, Inc.
www.qualitytree.com
esh@qualitytree.com
Last updated September 22, 2011
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

2. What Does Agile Really Mean?
Agile software teams…
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
…Deliver value in the form of
releasable software at frequent
regular intervals (at least
monthly)…
…At a sustainable pace…
…While adapting to the changing
needs of the business.

3. Increasing Complexity
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Courtesy of Ray
Kurzweil and Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.

4. Speculation
Speculation Buildup
Analyze Design Implement Stabilize
Release
Big Bang
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

5. Speculation, Lack of Alignment, and Risk
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Intentions ?
? Implementation
Actual Need ?

6. Speculation
Agile eliminates speculation buildup…
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

7. …only if we eliminate the speculation
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

8. Speculation
Iterations…
“frAgile”!
Stabilize
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

9. speculation!
Every. Single. Time.
Evidence
Empirical
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

10. are the ones that
positioned to succeed
LEARN
The organizations best
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

11. Learn
Build
Measure
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

12. How do we check alignment?
Intentions
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
? Implementation
Actual Need
Get out of
the building!
Steve Blank, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany

13. How do we check alignment?
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Begin with the End in Mind.
Capture examples with
expectations. Automate
checking of expectations.
?
Intentions
Explore to discover risks.
Implementation
Actual Need

14. The Letter and Spirit of a Story
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Explicit
Expectations
Implicit
Expectations

15. Check that all previously met expectations
are still met even as the solution grows in
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
capability and complexity.

16. How do we check alignment?
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Intentions
Implementation
Actual Need
? Demo.
Rehearse delivery.
Deliver frequently.
Explore with the
customer or proxy.

17. Latency
Reducing Feedback Latency
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

18. What Does Agile Really Mean?
Agile software teams…
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
…Deliver value in the form of
releasable software at frequent
regular intervals (at least
monthly)…
…At a sustainable pace…
…While adapting to the changing
needs of the business.

19. Intentions
Actual Need
✔
✔
Implementation
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

20. (OK, now let’s talk about “testing.”)
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

21. Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
any activity that yields
about
the extent to which our
, our
, and the
are
.

22. Intentions
Actual Need
Checking Alignment
Implementation
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

23. speculation!
Every. Single. Time.
Evidence
Empirical
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

24. The Whole Team Succeeds or Fails TOGETHER
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
“Hey! There’s a
hole in your side
of the boat.”
As Alistair Cockburn says:
There is no “Us” and “Them.”
There is only Us.

25. Nine Key Technical Testing-Related
Agile Practices
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Exploratory
ATDD TDD
Testing
Automated Automated Collective
System Tests Unit Tests Ownership
Continuous Automated Rehearse
Integration Deploy Delivery

26. Test-First Mindset:
Begin with the End in Mind
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Strategy
How will I
Initiative
know my
Code efforts have
the result I
intended?

27. Acceptance-Test Driven Development (ATDD)
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Agile-Friendly Test Automation Framework
User Story Workshop Implementation

28. Continuous Integration (CI)
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
CI tools do
automated builds,
execute tests, and
report the results
Developers practicing CI
merge their changes
locally & execute tests
before checking in

29. Version ALL Technical Assets with the Code
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Source Control Repository
Production Acceptance (Plus All
Code Tests other
technical
assets)
Unit Tests Test
“Fixture”
Code

30. Increase Visibility
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

31. Automated Deploy
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

32. Fail Early, Fail Fast
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Exploration
Automated Regression
CI Build
Secs- Mins Mins- Hrs-
Local Unit Tests Mins Hrs Days
Failing early & fast gives us time
to fix the problems.

33. Red Build Means Stop the Line
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
We can just throw But that will
that bug on the pile increase technical
with the others. debt & slow
velocity.
Yuck.
If a previously passing expectation fails, there’s a
bug. Bugs slow everything down. To keep
sustainable pace, fix bugs fast.

34. Exploratory Testing
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Simultaneously…
…learning about the software
…designing tests
…executing tests
using feedback from the last
test to inform the next
(See Jon and James Bach’s work on Session-Based ET)

35. + Explored
Implemented
== DONE
+ Checked
Done Includes Tested
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

36. speculation!
Every. Single. Time.
Evidence
Empirical
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.

37. Intentions
Actual Need
TEST
Implementation
LEARN
Copyright © 2011 Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.