Build Quality In, workshop with Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin at Agile Roots 2015

Build Quality In

Agile Roots 2015Salt Lake City

Lisa Crispin Janet Gregory@lisacrispin @janetgregoryca

Sharing Testing Expertise for Product Success

Copyright 2015

Copyright 2015 : Lisa Crsipin, Janet Gregory – DragonFire Inc2

A little about us

JanetFirst agile team: 2000

Currently coaching, trainingTwitter: janetgregoryca

Email: [email protected]

Agile Testing; 2009More Agile Testing: Oct 2014

Website: www.agiletester.com

www.agiletester.ca

Lisa First agile team – 2000

Currently tester on Pivotal Tracker teamTwitter: lisacrispin

Email: [email protected]


Let’s find out about you!

What roles do you normally play? Raise your hand if you are primarily a ……• tester• programmer• business analyst / domain expert• manager• iteration manager / ScrumMaster

Did you bring your curiosity and problems solving skills today?

If you’re sitting with a table group with several people in your specialty, you might like to switch tables to get the most value out of our exercises.

Are you at the right table?

Ways to:• Involve the whole team• Identify skills needed to build your T-shaped

skill set• Grow square-shaped team skill sets • that enable the team to build quality in• to transfer testing skills

“Give-aways”

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Testing on agile projects is ……..

more than “just” testing code

It’s an activity - not a phase

Multi- discipline skills

Expert Discipline skills

T-Shaped Skills

Exercise - Your skills: ~5 minutes

• What’s in your testing toolbox?• Write down the skills you can contribute to

your team that help build in quality • ONE skill per sticky note


How do we define quality?

• "Quality is value to some person.” – Jerry Weinberg

• Internal vs external quality•What does it mean to you and your team?


What’s your team’s commitment to quality?

• Everyone will say they want high quality…

• Get the team together to discuss: what level of quality can you commit to?

• Make the commitment mean something

Breadth of Skills

Dep

th o

f S

kills

Square-shaped Team

See links for more by Rob Lambert and Adam P. Knight

What might be in a team’s toolbox? Group Exercise – 12 minutes

1. Put everyone’s sticky notes of skills on a wall chart.

2. Group similar ones.3. Discuss the skills each specialty can bring.4. Who else on a software team might bring

additional skills that help build in quality?5. Prioritize the skills needed (groupings)

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Some collaborative techniques

ConversationsUse modelsUse patternsPairBrown bag lunchesBook clubsRetrospectives

Show by exampleGroup exercisesPlay gamesDrawing (ex. mind maps)ExperimentLearning timeCoaching


Patterns to affect change

Fearless Change (2008) & More Fearless Change (2015) by MaryLynn Manns and Linda Rising

#1 Just Enough: To ease learners into difficult concepts of a new idea, give a brief intro and make more info available when they are ready

#2 Persistent PR: Keep the new idea visible by placing reminders throughout the organization, for example, the team work area.


Exercise - Experiments: 20 minutes

Take top 2 prioritized skills from the last exercise1. Identify possible collaborative solutions (5-10 min)

2. Try these out with other team members (10-15 min)

Debrief• Did any work particularly

well?

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Building Quality In

• You can be a change agent!

• Make them team problems to solve

• Bring up quality and testing issues in standups, retrospectives

• Get the whole team involved

• Transfer skills

• Experiment!


There’s not one right way

Find ways that you can add value to your team

And then …. keep learning

Copyright 2015 : Lisa Crsipin, Janet Gregory – DragonFire Inc

More Learning•Knight, Adam P., "T-shaped Tester, Square Shaped Team",

http://thesocialtester.co.uk/t-shaped-tester-square-shaped-team/, 2013

•Lambert, Rob, "T-shaped Testers and Their Role In a Team", http://thesocialtester.co.uk/t-shaped-testers-and-their-role-in-a-team/ , 2012

•Levison, Mark, "The Beginner's Mind - An Approach to Listening", http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/08/beginners_mind, InfoQ, 2008

•McMillan, Darren, "Mind Mapping 101", for Testing: http://www.bettertesting.co.uk/content/?p=956, 2011

•Fearless Change, 2008 and More Fearless Change, 2015, Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising, Addison-Wesley

• Gärtner, Markus, ATDD By Example, Markus Gärtner, 2012, Addison-Wesley

• Adzic, Gojko – all his books! Some with David Evans and Tomm Roden.

• Henderson, Elisabeth, Expore It! 2013, Pragmatic Bookshelf

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Copyright 2015 : Lisa Crsipin, Janet Gregory – DragonFire Inc

Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team

By Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin www.agiletester.cawww.agiletester.com

Contact infowww.janetgregory.caEmail: [email protected]: janetgregoryca

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lisacrispin.comEmail: [email protected]: lisacrispin

Build Quality In, workshop with Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin at Agile Roots 2015

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Build Quality In, workshop with Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin at Agile Roots 2015