Agile Testing with Lisa Crispin

Last sprint we had a half-point story, which in our world should be about a day of coding and testing, to do some “simple” text content changes on a wizard in our web application. It’s been a year since we had updated this part of the application (it mainly gets used from late January to mid-March). While we were planning our sprint, we didn’t think too hard about how the wizard worked, and how many permutations it involves over the span of time that our end users are using it.

First Try

Our product owner asked me for screenshots of some of the pages, and had his mockups of the changes ready to go in a Word document before the start of the sprint. We wrote test cases on our wiki accordingly.

Second Try

One of the programmers started working on the story and realized the code had a lot of different cases that depended on dates and statuses of various items. He printed out some of the code and went over it with the product owner to get the appropriate text for each of the cases. The original mockups we had were no longer useful.

Third Try

When I started to test the updates, I kept getting confused. There were subtle differences between the different permutations, and several different target and deadline dates involved. I showed the new pages to the product owner, and he got confused himself, and kept making more changes to the text and even to the logic behind what text is displayed when. The programmer patiently updated the code over and over again, but I could tell he was losing the will to live.

I finally cut and pasted paper mockups myself for each possible condition with the text I thought was correct, went over it with the product owner who made his changes, and the programmer worked from the paper mockups. This did the trick, but by now, the half-point story had taken eight days instead of one.

What We Learned

In hindsight, we think that we should have started by researching all the different possible permutations before we started on the story, giving the PO a screen shot for each one, and having him give us paper mockups for each condition. This would certainly helped me test, as I tend to be more visual, rather than being able to mentally interpret what the code should produce.

When we showed this to more of the stakeholders, they asked if anyone besides the PO and us had reviewed the new text. We had been depending on the PO to do this, so we didn’t show it to anyone else until the coding was finished. Next time, we’ll ask the PO if other stakeholders have reviewed his changes.

Sometimes stuff just happens, but if we always remember to get a mockup for each change needed and each case, it might save us time in the future.

News

There’s a lot going on – I have new articles published and lots of tutorials, workshops and other events coming up. Please check out my News page for details.

Today I was lucky to hear part of the Thomas Jefferson Hour as I drove down to the ranch to work the donkeys. Thomas Jefferson, channeled by the actor and scholar Clay Jenkinson, quoted from his first inaugural address: “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle”. Jefferson believed that our elected officials should respond to moments of tension (and as he says, there was just as much rancor in political debates back in his day as now) with politeness, good humor and respectfulness. He recommended that our current elected officials, if they can’t find common ground, should adopt “artificial good humor” and assume the best about their opponents.

TJ and I might both have our head in the clouds, but I’m a big believer in civility. I’m not recommending that we all walk around on eggshells and worry about offending people. But I do think we need to all work hard to make sure that everyone on our software team feels safe to express opinions, and conversely, is willing to accept the team consensus or majority rule, and work to make whatever approach is taken successful.

This is something I want to take to heart for myself. Here’s an example. I’m trying to explain an issue to the programmer who is on production support this sprint. I’ve analyzed the problem and think I know how it should be fixed. He seems not to understand, gets impatient with me, throws up his hands and tells me I am mistaken. I could feel mad and hurt by this, or I can remember that being the production support monkey is frustrating and stressful. I’ve given him the information I wanted to convey, and I can leave him to process it. He’s smart and motivated to take care of our customers, so I know he will find a good solution. He shouldn’t be rude to me, but if I can avoid escalating the tension, we will have a good outcome.

Indeed, later the programmer comes over and apologizes, says now he understands what I was trying to say, and appreciates the research I did into the issue. We talk about the fix and how to test it.

I’m lucky to work on a team that, though there is lots of joshing and joking, is composed of people with a deep commitment to providing a quality product, and open minds willing to consider anyone’s ideas. I’ve been on teams that didn’t provide this atmosphere of respect and civility, and I must confess, I hightailed it away from those toxic environments.

The “agile” movement was built on principles and values. “Every difference of opinion is not a difference in principle”. Give your team time and space to agree on principles and values. Going forward from there, each team member will feel free to float their ideas and opinions, and have healthy discussions. That’s what makes a project successful.

News!

Janet Gregory and I have an article, and are interviewed in, this month’s Software Test and Performance Magazine, devoted to “Women of Influence in Software Testing”. Please check it out, it’s a great issue with lots of meaty articles.

I have a sidebar in Dawn Cannan‘s terrific “Be the Worst” article in the inaugural issue of Agile Record.

Matt Davey wrote a wonderful thumbnail summary of our book in his review of it, we are grateful.

It’s that time of year for resolutions. One important agile principle (to me, at least) is the idea of continuosly improving. We are always looking for experiments to try, ways to work better. (There’s discussion on Twitter right now about the label ‘agile’ – maybe it’s time to drop it and just let it be the way we develop software! But that’s another post!)

Recently I wrote a Sticky Minds blog post about being nice. On New Year’s day, I read one of those newspaper articles you see every year that gives advice on sticking to resolutions. It suggested that rather than resolve to “being nicer”, set specific goals, such as, “I will compliment one of my co-workers each day on one of their accomplishments”. That seems smart.

So, instead of resolving to act nicer, I will resolve to notice and appreciate each day at least one of my teammates’ contributions. I also want to pair for some period of time with a coworker at least a couple of times a week. It would help me improve my skills, and I think it helps the team improve.

I have lots of other ways I’d like myself and my team to improve, watch this space. Meanwhile, I’m more interested in what other people are doing to improve how they work or behave. Please comment and share!

Agile Coaching, in my opinion, isn’t only for people who coach agile teams. If you’re in the software business, you’ll learn something valuable from this book. Start with the last chapter – “Growing You”. The only way to succeed in our industry is to continually learn and improve, and this chapter gives great suggestions how to do that.

This book is a model of concise, clear writing. It’s packed with information in the form of narrative, bullet points, graphics, photos, stories of real teams and projects, exercises, tips and examples. The authors have been walking their talk for a long time, so you can feel confident about following their advice. Their flair for language makes the book fun to read. It could be a quick read, except you’ll find yourself stopping to reflect on your own experiences, and thinking about how you could apply the technique you just read about on your own team. Each chapter includes hurdles you may face, and a checklist summarizing action items for you, the reader.

I particularly enjoyed the little vignettes with dialog from a typical team illustrating topics such as “Not Quite Done Yet” and “Getting Ready to Demo”. The authors have insight into all aspects of coding, testing, and managing software teams. You’ll find advice you might not expect in a software-related book, such as “Be kind to yourself”. The focus on people and teams will make you a better person and team member.