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Inspire (formerly Insight Consulting) provides Agile, Quality and Process Improvement Services such as
� Consulting/Coaching:– Strategic advice and hands-on Coaching/mentoring in areas such as agile, testing, process
improvement, etc.
� Training public/inhouse:– Agile: Scrum, Agile project management, Agile Testing, etc.
– Testing (ISTQB Foundation and Advanced Test Manager/Analyst, Risk-based testing, Test design techniques, Testing for developers, TMap®, Peer Reviews, UAT, etc.)
– Requirements/Business analysis
– Software project management
� Assessments– Agile practices
– Industry standards and models such as CMMI®, TPI®, TMMi®, etc.
Much of the focus with testing in an agile environment has been on practices/techniques and tools but what about Test Management? Test Managers want to know what happens to their role when teams are self-empowered and what a test management process looks like in an agile context. Using Scrum as the main agile method (but with discussion of participants own approaches/variations), this workshop will through presentation, exercises and discussion cover topics such as
– Transitioning the test manager role to agile… both from the project test manager and line
manager perspective
– Test strategy in agile in differing contexts
– Test management process – estimation and planning in agile
– Test management issues and their place in agile – metrics, process improvement, tooling,
etc.
Participants, particularly those already working with agile, will be encouraged to share their challenges and experiences.
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Agenda
� Introduction to Agile/Scrum
� Test Management challenges with Agile/Scrum
� Some key agile test management considerations
– Transitioning the TM role
– Agile Test Strategy
– Test Management Process – estimating and planning in Agile
– Test Management issues – metrics, process improvement, etc.
►Defines the features of the product, decides on release date and content►Is responsible for the profitability of the product (ROI)►Prioritizes features according to market value►Can change features and priority every 30 days►Accepts or rejects work results►An active role pointing the work in a particular direction, evaluating the results and adjusting direction based on the reality of what the last piece of work produced. Typically a Product Manager, Marketing, Internal Customer, etc.
►Cross-functional, seven plus/minus two members►Selects the Sprint goal and specifies work results►Has the right to do everything within the boundaries of the project guidelines to reach the Sprint goal
►Organizes itself and its work►Demos work results to the Product Owner
►Ensures that the team is fully functional and productive►Enables close cooperation across all roles and functions and removes barriers►Shields the team from external interferences►Ensures that the process is followed. Invites to daily scrum, Sprint review and planning meetings. Typically filled by a Project Manager or Team Leader
– Usual coverage of boundaries, story conditions/requirements, risks, etc.
– Within acceptable defect levels
– Non functionally tested (performance, security…?)
– Etc.
– Accepted by product owner
� If stories not ‘done’ by end of Sprint then they are put back on backlog for the next Sprint planning
� Can there be more than one level of ‘Done’?
Done
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Discussion
� A key Scrum principle is: “Trust the Team”. A Scrum sprint delivers “working software, ready for deployment”.
� So “no need for independent testing” may be the viewpoint of scrum people you are collaborating with. And the problem is: it makes sense! To a certain extent at least.
� What’s YOUR position here? Do you agree, even in complex IT landscapes and critical business chains? Or do you oppose? Or something in between?
Test Line/functional Management responsibilities in agile – some
considerations � Support tester capability within agile teams
– Hiring/firing, overall test resource management
– Career development/Performance management
– Training/coaching/mentoring
� In domain/product
� In agile test process/culture
� In technology
– Specialist test support for agile teams
� Performance, security, etc.
� Remove organizational obstacles� Agile test strategy?
– Discussed later
– Supporting overall quality e.g. supporting developers, automation approaches, etc.
� Agile process definition?– Test practices such as TDD
– Test role definition
– Balancing standardisation/organisational improvement with team empowerment?
� Test Tool standardisation?
Note: for programmes/large projects a Project Test Manager might be responsible for much of the above (rather than an organisational test line/functional manager)
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Project Test Management in agile –
some considerations
� Traditional test manager responsibilities now done by agile team:– Estimation and Planning– Monitoring/control
� Direct involvement in agile teams?– ScrumMaster– Team member for key developments – leading by example
� Larger more complex projects– Higher level involvement in planning and co-ordination– Test Integration planning and co-ordination– Reporting
Metrics� Burn rate. How much money/time/resources are we
investing in this effort? Like it or not, someone always wants to know this number.
� Delivered functionality. The delivery of working software is the only true measure of progress on a software development project. Simple ways to measure this are simply tracking – Velocity. This is a measure of how much functionality
can the team deliver per iteration. This measure is often captured in the form of "use case points" or "story points" which are specific to the team.
– Defects. Knowing how many defects, and the severity of those defects, is an important determinant of whether you're in a position to deploy your system.
� Scott W. Ambler
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Other issues� Test Process improvement in agile
– Retrospectives– Is there a role for guidance, organisational
improvement, etc.?– Suitability of TPI, TMMi, etc?
� Similarly re Tooling– Balancing empowerment with Organisational support
to avoid tool proliferation and associated inefficiencies