Agile Testing: A Report from the Frontline

agile, blog, distributed, testing

The first European Agile Testing conference was organised by Díaz & Hilterscheid In October 2009.

I gave a presentation about Testing and Scrum at the Scrum Gathering 2007 in London. A colleague of my revised the presentation and send in a paper with the title Agile Testing: A Report from the Frontline. The paper was was selected and the colleague of my created this presentation and gave it on the first day of the conference.

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This year we have session about Agile Performance Testing, check out the program for more information.
Below is the summary of the presentation of 2009.
In the summer of 2005, a large software development project at Planon had spun out of control. Scrum was introduced to get the project back on track. Currently, eight development teams and one support team work on the Planon software suite.
 
Testers play an important role in our Scrum process. Typically a team consists of a functional designer, four developers, two testers and a technical writer. The testers act as the team’s quality conscience. They are good communicators and team players. Having them on the teams has contributed greatly to the success of our Agile projects.
 
During the sprint planning meeting, the testers estimate and plan their tasks. With their functional knowledge, they ask questions to clarify the requirements for the team. Our risk matrix helps them to determine the required test effort and coverage.
 
During the month-long sprint, testers perform their tasks: testing bug fixes, preparing ET charters or test cases, and setting up and maintaining automated regression tests. We try to prevent “mini-waterfalls”; this requires discipline from every team member.
 
Setting up and maintaining the test automation framework can become a pitfall when time and effort are not invested.
 
The test manager is responsible for the test policy and -strategy; he coaches the testers and facilitates the monthly professional circle and test retrospective meetings.
 
The transition to Agile proves to be hard for some testers. We focus on Agility during recruitment and training.
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