Narrative Testing: Tools for Story Test Driven Development
Narrative Testing leverages script-based testing tools and DSTLs to express Story Tests in the user’s own language. Developers and customers cooperate to create customer-readable scripts based on User Stories, which are executed interactively against the application UI. Through Narrative Testing, customers are able to view the executing test, and to experientially tie steps in the test to changes in the application state, increasing customer confidence in testing. We will share practical tips and real-world experiences for the interactive creation of executable Narrative Tests with the user.
Story Test Driven Development (STDD) extends the benefits of Test Driven Development from the Unit Test level to the Acceptance Test level. Narrative Testing tools implement test scripts that execute an entire User Story, rather than capturing calculations at a single point in the User Story in tabular form. This allows developers to write story tests directly into executable test scripts, and have customer-readable Narrative Tests created directly with and by our customers. This session will present the difference between tabular test tools like FIT and narrative test tools like Watir, Selenium and STIQ. We will explore the natural extraction of customer requirements and knowledge via User Stories, and how these stories can be directly, even interactively, translated into executable Narrative Tests in a narrative testing tool. Finally, we will discuss some of our practical experiences with STDD, and the lessons we have learned that facilitate interactive creation of executable User Story Tests with the customer.
This session was previously presented at Agile 2007, and was standing-room-only.
Attendee reviews from Agile 2007 were very positive, so we’re intending to use the same format this year: a high-level overview of Story Testing and Narrative Testing, a few short demos using several different Narrative Testing Tools, an in-depth look into the motivations for doing Narrative Testing as a sub-category of Story Testing, and a practical discussion of how to use Narrative Testing in the context of Agile iterations. After an opportunity for questions and clarification, we’ll wrap up the presentation with an in-depth demo of using Narrative Testing to drive refactoring, extend an existing User Story, and implement a new User Story.