Agile Testing with Lisa Crispin

Yesterday evening I had my weekly dressage lesson with my trainer, riding her young horse, Dutchman. I’ve been riding since I was three, and started learning dressage almost 30 years ago. For several years recently, I rode a wonderful upper-level dressage horse. Some people would wonder why I still need lessons.

“Dressage” is a French word for “training”. It’s something I have to continually learn, and I expect that’s true of most dressage riders. I might be slower than most, though. Yesterday, my trainer commented, “You know how to do this; when I remind you, you can do it. Why can’t you remember to do it without my telling you?”

Well, right now I only ride once a week, in this lesson. So it’s hard to remember the many different things I need to be doing at one time. That’s why I need a reminder. My job is that way too. In any given day, I have to engage in several different activities. It’s easy to forget some good practice that I ought to be doing.

Agile development helps us remember the right behaviors by providing us with a framework of values and principles. For example, when we need to solve a problem, we can apply the value of simplicity. Agile practices, such as pairing, help us maintain the discipline that we need.

I find that I also have to continually learn, reading articles, blogs, watching webinars, brainstorming with co-workers. Just as I ride better when my trainer reminds me of things I already know, I am a better tester and development team member when my co-workers remind me of our team goals and good practices.

If I only had one thing to do all day, every day, I could probably become perfect at executing. But since real life and real work involve so much variety, I have to continuously learn. There are new tools  to investigate, new business requirements to learn, new problems to solve.

There are lots of great books, magazines, courses, conferences, blogs and other online offerings to help us learn. See the links on the sidebar to your right. Elisabeth Hendrickson and Dale Emery have a great Agile Testing Series course. Janet Gregory and I are now offering our own course, Agile Testing: A Roadmap to Success. Go learn something new today!

The second issue of Quality Matters is available for download, and features my article, “Helping Testers Transition to Agile: What Testers Can Do for Themselves”. In it I offer advice to testers who find themselves on agile teams and aren’t sure how to adapt. Please comment on it!

Quality Matters is aimed at Eastern Europe, but I’ve found the first two issues quite good, helpful information no matter where in the world you work! I particularly enjoy Alessandro Collino’s articles, this month it’s a comparison of Robot Framework and Fit.

Quality Matters is published by Quality House, which is organizing SEETEST, June 16-17, Sofia Bulgaria. I’ll be there, and I look forward to meeting software professionals from southeastern Europe there!

In other news – there are starting to be a lot of “agile testing” training courses offered. Watch this space, because Janet and I are working on our own three day training course in agile testing.

The world’s a tough place, so take advantage of a chance for some chuckles. Read about the newest test tool from the eminent Alister Scott, WATIF. And if you’re feeling the need to get some kind of certification, check out Scott Ambler’s new master class. (A reminder – and this part sadly isn’t an April Fool joke – Janet Gregory and I do not endorse any certifications for agile testing or anything else, especially any you might see on a website that hasn’t been run thru a spelling or grammar checker, and that had material lifted from our book on it until recently).