Agile is Groovy, Testing is Square
In the playground world of software development, Agility has cool shoes and the latest gadgets. Testing has asthma and sticking plaster on his glasses.
Does testing have anything desirable at all to bring to the party? This discussion-based track proposes that testers bring something at odds with Agile approaches; disbelief, cynicism, pessimism. It is by defeating these that the software shows that it is genuinely ready to meet the real world.
Can one truly be an ‘agile tester’? Would that be a good thing?
** End of 90-word summary **
In the playground world of software development, Agility has cool shoes and the latest gadgets. Testing has asthma and sticking plaster on his glasses. Does testing have anything desirable at all to bring to the party?
I believe that testers do have something special, and that special something is at odds with Agile approaches. Indeed, I believe that it is special because it is at odds. Testers bring disbelief, cynicism, pessimism - and it is by defeating these that the software shows that it is, genuinely, ready to run full tilt from the supportive arms of its creators and into the real world.
However, this disparity can easily become toxic on real projects, building a barrier around the designers and coders that looks suspiciously like a disguised waterfall to this journeyman test strategist. Using real-life examples, I will attempt to give a flavour of what it is like to bring a test perspective into an agile project - and what it is like to be on an agile project that has a sudden need for testing skills. We’ll look at the characteristic effects of agile practices on the work of a tester, and the ways that common practices - within the letter of agile principles, and with the best intentions of all concerned - can build up to a ‘testing debt’ that leaves a project teetering on the brink of disaster.
Struggling from the morass of mixed metaphor, I will ask (and seek answers for) the following questions:
Can a tester fit into an agile team and still offer the best of his or her skills and insight? Can one make - or become - an ‘agile tester’? Would that be a good thing?
I’ll strive to keep this talk short, and provocative, in the hope that it will trigger a discussion that moves out from the room and into the halls and bars of the venue.
This is based on a longer, less provocative talk supported with a 7500 word paper. Longer talk delivered at Ordina’s Agile Testing day in Utrecht, Oct 2007, and the London SIGiST March 2008.