S13-203: Trust, But Verify – How Agile Testing Practices Will Affect How Your Organization Tests

Track: Agile Testing

Quality software that has all of the features planned and gets released in a seemingly effortless manner is the “Holy Grail” that organizations yearn for and inspire them to “Go Agile”. But becoming Agile is not merely a matter of changing a few titles in document templates, or standing up every morning and asking “three magic questions” during a status call. An important principle of the Agile Manifesto states “Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.” But exactly what things need to be done to reach “technical excellence”?

This session looks into the Agile setting to highlight the eXtreme Programming practices as well as some of the Agile/Scrum processes that you should be concerned about into your organizational quest to be Agile. We will start with a discussion of what Agile/Scrum iteration sprints should produce in terms of a preference for working software over comprehensive documentation. We will then examine what testing is really all about and distinguish testing of Functional Requirements from Non-Functional Requirements and speak to what patterns typically emerge from a process perspective. We will examine the general subject of software testing, and discuss in depth what specific types of testing are done by developers, QA, and DevOps in an Agile setting. And, finally, we will dig into the developer, QA, and DevOps roles and speak to the “transitions” that take place in the Agile development rhythm, focusing on which roles focus on which tasks in the arc of concept to deployed code. We want to reach the real goal the Agile Tester – “trust, but verify” and point out the features of potential ways that you and your organization can get there.

Session Takeaways:

  • The importance on producing working software that by QA in each iteration and how that gets demoed/reviewed, rather than merely early document production
  • Distinguishing functional requirements testing from non-functional testing and what patterns generally emerge
  • Distinguishing white box testing from black box testing, and the effects on development and QA members
  • The emerging role of QA in DevOps and why this makes more sense in an Agile setting, instead of purely depending on developers to aid the transition to operations
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Session Speaker:

Howard DeinerHoward Deiner – Principal, Deinersoft, Inc.
Howard Deiner is an independent software consultant who specializes in Agile process and eXtreme Programming practices. He has a varied background spanning 38 years in the industry, with extensive domain knowledge in commercial software, aerospace, and financial services. He has played many of the roles in the development arena, such as developer, analyst, team lead, architect, and project manager. Howard has degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from SUNY at Stonybrook, as well as a Juris Doctor from Thomas M Cooley School of Law. Howard is a long-standing member of the ACM and IEEE.