{"id":96,"date":"2007-10-24T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-24T10:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quinert.com\/blog\/xml-rss2.php?itemid=54"},"modified":"2015-08-27T09:59:54","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T23:59:54","slug":"the-essence-of-testing-on-agile-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/2007\/10\/24\/the-essence-of-testing-on-agile-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"The essence of testing on agile projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Capturing the essence’, or ‘core’, has been a key theme in some of my work recently, and in several of the books I’ve been reading. So over a drink with Michael Ruschena<\/a> tonight a couple of these came out as we linked ‘the core’, ‘agile’, and haiku – poetry that captures the essence. I’ve been coaching a team around testing on agile project, so I thought it might be fun to try to capture the essence of that…<\/p>\n

I thus present agile testing haiku.<\/p>\n

Note: I’m just going to keep adding new ones to this post so that they’re all in the one spot. And increasingly I’m finding these are not just about agile development, but software development generally.<\/em>
\n————————————————–<\/p>\n

Method it is not
\nApply values, principles
\nTo meet your own needs<\/p>\n

Planning game is key
\nHow do we know when we’re done?
\nCheck the product goals.<\/p>\n

Can’t make it all fit?
\nYou’ll need to take something out
\nor get more money.<\/p>\n

If the date is fixed
\nYou cannot slide quality
\nYou just take things out<\/p>\n

This user story
\nDoes not express your intent.
\nWhy, why, why, why, why?<\/p>\n

Push the risk up front
\nShorten the feedback cycles
\nHighest value first<\/p>\n

Development, test
\nAre all part of the same team.
\nTry working closely.
\nLeaving aside that this is something of a motherhood statement, I don’t think things are this simple any more. I’m leaving it here until I can think of what I want to say<\/em><\/p>\n

Good acceptance tests
\nSet goals but skip one main thing –
\nImplementation.<\/p>\n

We got a green bar,
\nWhy is the customer sad?
\nJust add a story.<\/p>\n

I didn’t do it.
\nIt wasn’t in the story.
\nLook, new offshored jobs!<\/p>\n

Exploratory tests
\nHelp find problems most quickly
\nbut make extra work.<\/p>\n

Skilled software testers
\nUse many different models
\nTry many angles<\/p>\n

Though up-front tests help
\nWe can get stuck in a rut
\nGo and have a beer<\/p>\n

Embrace fuzziness
\nPrecise is not accurate
\nBand your estimates<\/p>\n

Some we can know now,
\nbut some we must build to learn.
\nBest tell the owner.<\/p>\n

Start with a small team
\nWhen the hole size becomes known
\nlet everyone dig<\/p>\n

Unit, story tests
\nWhy is our build getting slow?
\nMore techniques will help.<\/p>\n

How are we going?
\nIf you can’t tell at a glance
\nhave visible charts<\/p>\n

Rough iterations?
\nPreserving uncertainty
\nmay help things improve<\/p>\n

Estimate fully
\nBut to manage greatest risk
\nTake away two thirds<\/p>\n

No estimates, eh?
\nIt’s OK to estimate,
\njust understand why.<\/p>\n

The test strategy…
\nWhat information and how,
\ntied to the vision<\/p>\n

Left values or right?
\nWhat’s the pairing’s principle?
\nYou’ll need skill at both.<\/p>\n

The grind of agile
\nSprinting then taking a break
\nhelps you sustain pace<\/p>\n

What is knowable?
\nPredicting or reacting?
\nFind your middle ground<\/p>\n

The requirements.
\nStories are only a third.
\nWhat about the rest?<\/p>\n

Who’s your customer?
\nYou have no ******* idea?
\nFind out quick or stop.<\/p>\n

People should come first
\nBut a flat cost of change curve
\nHelps a***holes as well<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Capturing the essence’, or ‘core’, has been a key theme in some of my work recently, and in several of the books I’ve been reading. So over a drink with Michael Ruschena tonight a couple of these came out as we linked ‘the core’, ‘agile’, and haiku – poetry that captures the essence. I’ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,25,26,29,30,33,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agile","category-agile-testing","category-requirements","category-risk","category-software-development","category-software-testing","category-teamwork","category-value"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.software-testing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}