Paul Gerrard
[email protected]
gerrardconsulting.com
@paul_gerrard
Agile Test Strategy
Overview • • • • • • •
What is Agile Test Strategy? Project Profiling (Test Strategy as) Agile Interventions Test Automation What’s Left? Summary Q&A Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 2
What is Agile Test Strategy? Agile Strategy – an oxymoron?
Agile Test Strategy • What do we mean by this? 1. AGILE Test Strategy – how to create a test strategy in an Agile way? 2. AGILE Test Strategy – a test strategy for an Agile project?
• We’ll look at how we created an Agile approach to strategy, but we’ll spend more time on strategy for an Agile project. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 4
Google “Agile Test Strategy” • There are plenty of recipes out there • Most offer a selection of techniques but don’t provide much guidance on how to blend them • We need to know how to make choices, not just know what choices exist • Strategy is a thought process, not a document – Although you might document the ideas for reuse, as a reminder or ‘for the record’. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 5
Agile governance • Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance Wikipedia • Define expectations – DEFINITION of need • Grant power – DELEGATION to a project team • Verify performance – ASSURANCE of solution. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 6
Strategy helps you decide what to do A. The strategy presents some decisions that can be made ahead of time B. Defines the process or method or information that will allow decisions to be made (in project) C. Sets out the principles (or process) to follow for uncertain situations or unplanned events • In a structured/waterfall environment, most questions answered off-the-shelf – “A-style, ready for anything” • In an Agile environment – might have some ready-made policies but we manage scope and adapt (mostly C?) Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 7
Contexts of Test Strategy Axioms
Early Testing
Risks
Goals
Test Strategy
Culture Human resource
Contract
Automation
Constraints Process (lack of?)
DeDuplication
Opportunities
Skills Environment
Communication
Timescales
User involvement
Artefacts
Traditional v Agile test strategy • Traditional – structured, goal/risk-driven – – – –
Identify stakeholders; what are their goals? Product risk analysis Allocate risks/goals to test stages Formulate test stage definitions (entry/exit criteria, environments, tools etc. etc.
• Agile – interventionist, consensus-driven – Project profiling to set the testing theme – Identify testing interventions (perhaps better, contributions) in the Agile process – Test policy overlays the process; catches exceptions. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 9
Project Profiling Select a profile for your project first, then choose the aspects of test strategy that suite your project
Template-driven? Bah! • So this is just a template copy and edit process? • Won’t you always end up with the same document? • Profiling doesn’t need to be prescriptive – No need to write a document if you don’t need to – But if company policy or common sense dictates certain approaches, save yourself some time – Create a set of deeper, more detailed questions to be answered (Pocketbook)
• Profilers are really just checklists: heuristic guidelines designed to help you make choices and trade-offs. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 11
Incident Mgt.
Using a Project Profiler to Derive a Test Strategy and Project Plan (A government client example)
Tools
Project Plan
Story Guideline
Test
Environment
Project Profiler Test Plan Items
Project Manager
Waterfall Test Strategy
Orange
Risk Profiler
Consultation
Cerise
Product Risks
Green
SCRUM/Agile Test Strategy
Assurance
Unknowns
Blue
Business, Project Team and Boards
The Project Profiler (with Test Assurance) helps Project Managers to: • Select a project style that fits (Waterfall or Agile) • Identify the product risks that need testing • Identify test activities to include in project plans • Carefully define the scope of the project
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
12
Project profiling process Task 1 2
Have the Information you need to hand Project Profiler (section 3): Select the statements that best match your project context. The Blue column indicates that you need more information – consult your stakeholders, team or relevant Board(s).
3
Generic Risk Profiler (section 4): Consider the generic project risks – which are significant for your project? Can testing help?
4
Product Risk Profiler (Section 5): Consider the functional and non-functional risks that most concern your stakeholders – should they be tested?
5
Actions and Test Activities (Section 6): Consider the actions that prompt your ‘next steps’ and the test activities that should be incorporated into your project plan.
6 7
Create your Test Strategy from the Test Strategy Framework Template Incorporate the activities from stage 5 and identified in 6 into your Project Plan. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
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Project Profiler (part of section 3) Project Aspect Responsibility for Acceptance
Cerise Users will take responsibility for UAT; they have UAT experience
Orange Users will be responsible for UAT but have no test experience
Green Users will take part in UAT or witness tests at critical periods, and will review the outcome
Requirements (Sources of Knowledge)
New system replaces a well-understood existing system; users have clear vision of system goals and prefer to document their requirements up-front New system is a functional replacement of an existing system or a well-defined process (requirements can be fixed early on)
Users want to collaborate to jointly define requirements and meet them incrementally or iteratively
Users put the onus of requirements elicitation on the project; requirements and the solution will evolve
New system replaces an existing system with enhancements or an established (but not necessarily documented process) High visibility/risk to business; formal progress reporting required; some defined deliverables, some deliverables will emerge/evolve; some approvals and sign-offs Single, known supplier responsible for development (and supplier testing)
New system supports a new business need; business process exists but will change/evolve; users have experience of requirements Relatively low businessrisk; informal progress reporting is acceptable; partial solution may suffice, incremental/iterative delivery In-house development, no external dependencies
New system supports a new business need; business process is not yet known; users have no experience or requirements Potentially, high visibility, high risk project, uncertain impact on the business
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Requirements Stability
Visibility, Formality
External Dependencies
Etc.
High visibility/risk to general public; formal progress reporting required at board level; fixed scope and deliverables; formal approvals and sign-offs More than one or new external suppliers responsible for development (and supplier testing) Etc.
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Blue Users are unwilling/unable to take part in UAT; reluctant to make the acceptance decision or not known Inexperienced users who are unable or unwilling to collaborate with requirements gathering
Dependencies on external suppliers, their responsibilities or competence not yet known
14
Project types - examples Cerise Orange
Green
Blue
Structured, waterfall style of project (and includes COTS projects) Iterative/prototyping style of project using SCRUM in a formal way and having dedicated resources for the Business Analyst and Tester roles. A project using SCRUM in a less formal way but not having dedicated resources for the Business Analyst and/or the Tester roles. Blue column statements describe where there is insufficient information available to identify the style of project and the recommendation must be that some further investigation is required. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
15
(Test Strategy as) Agile Interventions I’m using Scrum/Sprint terminology, but you don’t have to of course
Interventions (government client example) Activity Story Challenge
2
Story Definition
These activities are repeated for each Sprint iteration
• On the following slides, we highlight 8 interventions • Some are test phases, but some aren’t
No. 1
7 8 9
3
Daily Stand-Up
4
Story Refinement
5
Developer Testing
6
Integration (and incremental System) Testing System Testing User Acceptance Testing Non-functional Testing and PreProduction Testing
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
When? As stories are added to the Product Backlog As stories are added to a Sprint Backlog Once per day during the Sprint Occurs throughout the Sprint as new information emerges Occurs throughout the Sprint as the developer codes the stories During and at the end of each sprint, including the final sprint At the end of each sprint, including the final sprint At the end of each sprint, including the final sprint Expected to take place on an as-needs basis.
Slide 17
1. Story Challenge Suggest ‘what-ifs’ to challenge new stories and define story headlines
Project Level Test Activities (This diagram shows three sprints, but there could be more or fewer)
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
2. Story Definition Introduce scenarios to enhance the Acceptance Criteria
Sprint 1 Developed Stories
Developed Stories
Developed Stories
New Code Integration into Existing Code base Automated testing Increasing Scope of Sys. Test and UAT
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
7. System Test 8. User Test Increasing Scope of Integration, System and Users Testing
Complete Tests after Final Sprint
1. Story Challenge Suggest ‘what-ifs’ to challenge new stories and define story headlines
Project Level Test Activities (This diagram shows three sprints, but there could be more or fewer)
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
2. Story Definition Introduce scenarios to enhance the Acceptance Criteria
Sprint 1 Developed Stories
Developed Stories
Developed Stories
New Code Integration into Existing Code base Automated testing Increasing Scope of Sys. Test and UAT
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
7. System Test 8. User Test Increasing Scope of Integration, System and Users Testing
Complete Tests after Final Sprint
1. Story Challenge Suggest ‘what-ifs’ to challenge new stories and define story headlines
Project Level Test Activities (This diagram shows three sprints, but there could be more or fewer)
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
2. Story Definition Introduce scenarios to enhance the Acceptance Criteria
Sprint 1 Developed Stories
Developed Stories
Developed Stories
New Code Integration into Existing Code base Automated testing Increasing Scope of Sys. Test and UAT
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
7. System Test 8. User Test Increasing Scope of Integration, System and Users Testing
Complete Tests after Final Sprint
1. Story Challenge Suggest ‘what-ifs’ to challenge new stories and define story headlines
Project Level Test Activities (This diagram shows three sprints, but there could be more or fewer)
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
2. Story Definition Introduce scenarios to enhance the Acceptance Criteria
Sprint 1 Developed Stories
Developed Stories
Developed Stories
New Code Integration into Existing Code base Automated testing Increasing Scope of Int. Sys. and UAT
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
7. System Test 8. User Test Increasing Scope of Integration, System and Users Testing
Complete Tests after Final Sprint
1. Story Challenge Suggest ‘what-ifs’ to challenge new stories and define story headlines
Project Level Test Activities (This diagram shows three sprints, but there could be more or fewer)
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
2. Story Definition Introduce scenarios to enhance the Acceptance Criteria
Sprint 1 Developed Stories
Developed Stories
Developed Stories
New Code Integration into Existing Code base Automated testing Increasing Scope of Int. Sys. and UAT
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
6. Integration Test
7. System Test 8. User Test Increasing Scope of Integration, System and Users Testing
Complete Tests after Final Sprint
Test Activities in the Sprint 3. Daily Stand-Up Report anomalies found, stories tested, amended, created
Daily Scrum Stand-Up Meeting
4. Story Refinement Refine scenarios to enhance story definition, create system tests as stories, as required
5) Developer Testing Private ad-hoc tests and build/run automated unit tests
24 Hours
2-4 Weeks
Sprint Backlog
6) Integration/System Testing Incorporate automated unit tests into the CI regime. On weekly basis and at end of Sprint, deploy to System test environment and tester runs system tests.
Backlog tasks expanded by team
Product backlog As prioritised by Product Owner Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Potentially Shippable Product increment
23
Test Activities in the Sprint 3. Daily Stand-Up Report anomalies found, stories tested, amended, created
Daily Scrum Stand-Up Meeting
4. Story Refinement Refine scenarios to enhance story definition, create system tests as stories, as required
5) Developer Testing Private ad-hoc tests and build/run automated unit tests
24 Hours
2-4 Weeks
Sprint Backlog
6) Integration/System Testing Incorporate automated unit tests into the CI regime. On weekly basis and at end of Sprint, deploy to System test environment and tester runs system tests.
Backlog tasks expanded by team
Product backlog As prioritised by Product Owner Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Potentially Shippable Product increment
24
Test Activities in the Sprint 3. Daily Stand-Up Report anomalies found, stories tested, amended, created
Daily Scrum Stand-Up Meeting
4. Story Refinement Refine scenarios to enhance story definition, create system tests as stories, as required
5) Developer Testing Private ad-hoc tests and build/run automated unit tests
24 Hours
2-4 Weeks
Sprint Backlog
6) Integration/System Testing Incorporate automated unit tests into the CI regime. On weekly basis and at end of Sprint, deploy to System test environment and tester runs system tests.
Backlog tasks expanded by team
Product backlog As prioritised by Product Owner Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Potentially Shippable Product increment
25
Test Activities in the Sprint 3. Daily Stand-Up Report anomalies found, stories tested, amended, created
Daily Scrum Stand-Up Meeting
4. Story Refinement Refine scenarios to enhance story definition, create system tests as stories, as required
5) Developer Testing Private ad-hoc tests and build/run automated unit tests
24 Hours
2-4 Weeks
Sprint Backlog
6) Integration/System Testing Incorporate automated unit tests into the CI regime. On weekly basis and at end of Sprint, deploy to System test environment and tester runs system tests.
Backlog tasks expanded by team
Product backlog As prioritised by Product Owner Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Potentially Shippable Product increment
26
4. Story Refinement (example definition) Objectives
What’s being tested? Deliverables Responsibilities (Orange)
Responsibilities (Green) Baseline Entry Criteria Exit Criteria
To define acceptance criteria for all stories that are included in a Sprint as they are worked on by development To define scenarios that describe the tests and expected behaviours of the System Improve understanding of the requirement and communicate anomalies to developers To identify System Tests that exercise functionality of multiple stories that can be system tested in this sprint To assure the completeness for stories in the current Sprint Stories to be included in the current Sprint Refined story definitions with defined acceptance criteria and scenarios, where appropriate System tests Tester – challenges stories by suggesting potential scenarios, new stories, story merges and splits; performs ad-hoc testing with/on behalf of developers; assures completeness of stories. Developers – considers stories, evaluates impact on development Product Owner or Analyst – collates feedback and decisions on stories Product Owner – approves changes to stories, accepts completeness of stories Scrum Master – monitors progress; evaluates impact on resources and schedules Not performed in Green projects Story Guideline (reference 3) On commencement of the Sprint When all stories within a Sprint are considered complete Queries, anomalies, discrepancies and inconsistencies have been eliminated or explained System Tests appropriate to the Sprint have been defined Definition of acceptance is agreed with Product Owner
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
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Test Automation Could you create an Agile Test Strategy without automation?
Brian Marick’s Testing quadrants
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
29
Test Automation Pyramid – Lisa Crispin’s version (Google others) • Pyramid reflects the relative numbers of tests • Focus on unit/component – Acceptance of “Services” • GUI are end-to-end • Manual checking the exception?
Intelligent Definition and Assurance
30
Where do you automate? 3. Non-Technical testers write scripts Tools Experts write interface
Stories/ Scenarios Test Code GUI Test Framework
2. Technical Testers code scripts directly
GUI Test Tool
Unit Test Framework
Browser
HTTP Driver
HTTP/S
4. Programmers write low level HTTP GET/POST calls through a driver that simulates a browser
1. Programmers write unit tests or execute embedded unit tests using a unit test framework to test components
HTTP/S Inter/Intranet
HTTP/S
Test Code
Web Server App. Server DB Server
API
Unit Test Framework
Distributed testing • Use business stories and scenarios/acceptance criteria to validate requirements • Reuse those stories to feed ‘AcceptanceDriven Development’ BDD/TDD process • Automated tests are an Anti-Regression tactic • Automated tests don’t replicate manual tests; think of them as a ‘change trip-wire’ that triggers an alarm, if tripped. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
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Deriving scenarios to test • • • • • •
Story Challenge To understand feature scope? Story Refinement To get stakeholder to accept? Story Definition To validate the requirement? Iteration Planning To estimate the work to build this feature? System Testing To system test this feature? To unit test this feature? Developer Testing
Scenarios are created to meet several goals Intelligent Definition and Assurance
33
What’s Left?
Other aspects of test policy • • • • • • •
Definitions (of done etc.) Incident management Test automation Story format e.g. Gherkin Environment request and management Regression testing (at what levels) Test deliverables and documentation. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 35
The Three Amigos • Business Analyst – Liaises and manages stakeholders and their needs – Transforms business requirements into specification (at multiple levels)
• Developer – Scopes, designs, builds, tests and delivers features
• Tester – Challenges the thinking on the project – Performs ‘Assurance in the small’. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 36
The tester’s contribution to testing • • • • • • •
_________ feature/story acceptance criteria _________ the developers to unit test (auto) _________ feature/story acceptance _________ acceptance test _________ service/UI level automation Scope: from low-level detail to system integration Liaison with integration testers and feedback
• Fill in the blanks yourself; negotiate with your team. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 37
Summary
Close • Agile test strategy has its place and many aspects of test can be pre-defined • Importantly, we use a principled approach to deal with the unexpected • Project profiling can help • Testing as interventions, rather than test phases • The testing role is split at least three ways – the tester doesn’t own testing – think TESTMASTER • Test automation in the context of Specification by Example, requirements validation, BDD, TDD. Intelligent Definition and Assurance
Slide 39
Paul Gerrard
[email protected]
gerrardconsulting.com
@paul_gerrard
Agile Test Strategy
