Growing Agile: A Coach's Guide to Agile Testing

46 Pages·2016·8.9 MB·English

Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Agile Testing
Samantha Laing and Karen Greaves
Thisbookisforsaleathttp://leanpub.com/AgileTesting
Thisversionwaspublishedon2016-02-05
©2014-2016GrowingAgile
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Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
AbouttheAuthors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Chapter1:Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
HowToUseTheCoach’sGuideSeries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter2:GettingStarted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter3:AgileTestingMindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Appendix
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
FastPass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
StandingSurvey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Jenga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
GrowingAgileOnlineCourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
GrowingAgileBooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
AboutGrowingAgile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin for their thought leading work in their Agile
Testing¹book.ManyoftheideasinthisbookwereinspiredbyJanetafterattendingherWholeTeamTest
Approach²course.We’dhighlyrecommendthecourseifsheispresentingitinyourarea.
We’dalsoliketothankSharnaSammy³forherfantasticcoverdesignsforour“Coach’sGuide”series.
¹http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Testing-Practical-Guide-Testers/dp/0321534468
²http://janetgregory.ca/services/the-whole-team-approach-to-agile-testing-3-day/
³http://bookdesignblog.wordpress.com
i
About the Authors
SamLaing(left)andKarenGreaves(right)
We are Sam Laing and Karen Greaves. We have worked in software our whole lives. With Type A
personalitiesandastrongworkethic,wehavebothdoneourshareofovertimeondeathmarchprojects.
Eventuallyweknewwehadtofindanotherway.Agilebroughtustogetherwhenweworkedatacompany
tryingtodoScrumforthefirsttime.
In2012,wetooktheplungeandstartedourownbusiness,GrowingAgile⁴.Sincethenwehavebeendoing
the work that we are passionate about - introducing and improving agile. Best of all we have a positive
impactonotherpeople’slives.
One of the first things we did as a company was bring Janet Gregory to South Africa to run her Whole
TeamTestApproachcourse.Hertrainingresonatedwithus.Wefelttherewherekeyinsightsaboutagile
testingwecouldsharewithteamsinshortworkshops,thatcouldhelpthemthinkdifferentlyabouttesting.
We’vebeendeliveringtalksandworkshopsonagiletestingeverysince.
Asalways,welovefeedback,sodon’[email protected]⁵
orTwitter@GrowingAgile⁶.
⁴http://www.growingagile.co.za
⁵mailto:[email protected]
⁶https://twitter.com/GrowingAgile
ii
Chapter 1: Introduction
Ifateambelievestheyareagile,butnothinghaschangedaboutthewaytheytest,thenthereisstillmuch
tolearn.Weteach5keyprinciplesthatexplainwhyagiletestingisfundamentallydifferenttotraditional
testing.
This books includes a collection of workshops to help teams grasp these principles and adopt an agile
testingmindset.It’snotjustfortesters.Akeypartofagiletestingisthatthewholeteamisinvolved,so
wealwaysruntheseworkshopswitheveryoneintheteam.
Ifyourteamisreadyforthenextlevelwehighlyrecommendrunningthroughtheworkshopsinthisbook,
it will teach them a number of simple but valuable techniques to help prevent bugs and dramatically
increase the quality of your products. We provide the facilitation plans, teaching points, and even the
slidesyoumightusetohelpyouruntheworkshop.
Thechaptersinthisbookeachrelatetoadifferenttopiconagiletesting.Youcanusethebookinanumber
ofways.
• YoucoulduseallthechapterstogethertodeliverahalforfulldaytrainingcourseonAgileTesting.
This is usually how we run the workshops, and so many chapters build on things done in the
previouschapter.
• You can use an individual chapter to run a workshop session on a particular topic of interest. We
recommenddoingtheAgileMindsetfirstasitisreinforcedintherestofthechapters.
Foreachchapter,youcanexpandthelearningbyusingthetechniquejusttaughtonitemstheteamare
currentlyworkingwith.
Unlike our previous book on Training Scrum⁷, we don’t assume you are an expert on the topics in this
book. Not every coach and trainer have come across the same tools. If a topic is new to you, we have
provideddetailsofthepointsweteachforeachtopicintheC2section.Therearealsolinkstoblogposts
andbookswerecommendonthetopiconourwebsite⁸.
YouonlyneedthestandardtrainingkitmentionedinHowtousethisSeriestorunmostoftheworkshops
inthis book.However,ifyouplan torun theJengagamementioned intheGettingStartedchapter,you
willalsoneedafewJenga⁹sets.Twosetsareenoughforupto18people.
SincetestingandrequirementsarecloselylinkedtogetherwerecommendourAgileRequirements¹⁰book
(partoftheseries)asagoodcompaniontothisone.
⁷https://leanpub.com/TrainingScrum
⁸http://www.growingagile.co.za/agile-testing
⁹http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-A2120-Jenga-Classic-Game/dp/B00ABA0ZOA
¹⁰https://leanpub.com/agilerequirements
1
How To Use The Coach’s Guide Series
As agile coaches we often find ourselves running workshops or training sessions with people we are
coaching. We put a great deal of effort into creating the plans for these sessions to help the participants
get value. Over the past 2 years we have collected a lot of these plans. This series is our way of sharing
theseworkshopandtrainingplanswithotheragilecoachestoenableyoutorunsimilarworkshops.
Allthebooksinthisseriesarestructuredinasimilarway,thissectionexplainstheconceptsyou’llneed
toeffectivelyuseanyofthebooksintheseries.We’veputithereatthestartofthebook,sothatifyou’ve
usedanyoftheotherbooksintheseriesyoudon’tneedtoreadthroughthisagain,it’sthesameineach
book.
4Cs Plans
Eachchapterinthesebooksincludesa4Csplan.ThetechniquecomesfromatrainingstylecalledTraining
fromtheBACKoftheroom¹¹(TFTBOTR)developedbySharonBowman.
TFTBOTRisbasedonhowadultslearnandisfocusedonmaximisinglearningandretention.TFTBOTR
describes four parts that should be included in any training plan. These parts areknown as the 4Cs and
aredescribedbelow.
• C1–Connections:Togetparticipantstoconnectwitheachotherandthetrainers,andtoconnect
participantstowhattheymightalreadyknowaboutthetopic
• C2–Concepts:Somefactsandtheoreticalconceptsaboutthetopic
• C3–ConcretePractice:Anactivityorsimulationtoexperiencethetopic
• C4 – Conclusion: An opportunity for participants to evaluate what they have learned about the
topic
AnotherimportantpartofTFTBOTRismakingsureyouuseavarietyofmethodstokeeppeopleengaged.
ReadmoreaboutitinthisarticleontheSixTrumps¹²bySharonBowman.
After using this technique extensively for training, we started using it for workshops as well. The 4Cs
plan is a great way to weave new information or a technique into a working meeting. You can use C2,
the concept stage to talk briefly about a technique, then spend time in C3, getting practice on using the
techniqueonyourworkitems.
Note
OccasionallyitmakessensetoswaptheorderoftheC2andC3.Forsometopicsitisbetterfor
peopletoexperiencewhatyouaretalkingaboutwithConcretePracticefirst,andthenforyou
toteachthetheory.Thisisespeciallytrueifyouhaveagreatgameorsimulationtoillustrate
thepoint.WhenwedothiswejustputtheC3intheC2blockofthetemplate,andviceversa.
¹¹http://www.bowperson.com/books.htm
¹²http://bowperson.com/2016/01/teachers-trump-a-6-trumps-workshop-contributed-by-beverly-woolery/
2
HowToUseTheCoach’sGuideSeries 3
Wedriveallourworkshopsandcoursesfromthese4Csplans.Ifyouusuallytrainfromslidesthismight
taketimetogetusedto.Weprintoutthe4Csplansandrefertothemduringthecourseorworkshopto
seewhat’supnextandifweareontrack.
Wehavecreatedourowntemplateforthe4Csplans.ThetemplatecanbefoundintheCoachToolkitfor
eachbook.Useittocreateyourowntrainingplans.
Hereisashortoverviewtohelpyouunderstandthetemplate.
• Theboxinthetopleftcornerisforthenameofthetopic.
• Thebigclockicongivesthetimefortheentireplan;thesmallerclockiconsineachquadrantgives
thetimeneededforthatsection.
• Theboxinthetoprightcornerhasaspaceforyoutoenterthetimeforasection.Forexample9:00
to9:30am.Thishelpsyoustayontrackduringthetraining.Thesearenotfilledinonthetraining
plansweprovide.Wesuggestyoufilltheminwhenyouhaveplannedyourtraining.
• The rest of the page has a quadrant for each of the 4Cs. C1 covers connection activities. C2 is for
concepts and is quite often a short lecture. C3 is for concrete practices or some activity to help
peopleunderstandwhattheyhavelearned.C4containsconclusionsofhowpeoplemightapplythe
learning.
• Atthebottomofeachquadrantyoucancirclewhattheparticipantsaredoingineachsection:Move,
Speak,Draw,Listen,Write.Thishelpsensurethatyouhavesufficientvarietyineachtopic.
Chapter Layout
Eachchaptercontainsthefollowing:
HowToUseTheCoach’sGuideSeries 4
• overviewofthetopiccoveredinthe4Csplan
• 4Cstrainingplan
• notesondeliveringeach4Cspart
• slidesusedforthetopic
• exercisesusedforthetopic.
Onceyouhaveafeelforwhateachtopiccoversyoucanstructureyourownworkshopsusingoneormore
topicsdependingonyourgoalandtimeavailable.
Coach Toolkit
Each book in the series includes a Coach Toolkit which you can download from Leanpub. The toolkit
containsthefollowingitems.
Trainingplans:PDFcombiningallthe4Cstrainingplans.Youshouldprinttheseoutandusethemwhen
youtrain.Youwillnoticethattheseplansarehandwritten,wefindthemmucheasiertocreateandchange
byhandthaniftheyaretyped.
Slides:PPTXcontainingalltheslidesused.Theseslideswerecreatedusingscannedhanddrawings.Some
slideshavebeeneditedtoallowyoutoinsertyourowndetails.FortheseslidesweusedLaurenC.Brown
font¹³ as it closely matches the handwriting on the other slides. If you prefer not to use slides you can
recreatetheseimagesonflipcharts.
4Ctemplate:Usethisblanktemplatetocreateyourown4Csplansonnewtopics.
Agreement Cards: PDF of cards used in the Getting Started chapter of each book. We printed and
laminated them and use them in nearly every workshop we run. You don’t need to use all the cards
each time.Look throughthe cards before each workshopand decide which agreements areappropriate.
Thecardshelpmakesureyoudon’tforgetanythingimportant.
Workbook:DOCcontainingallthepagesofaparticipantworkbook.Youshouldprintoneperparticipant
forthemtofillin.Feelfreetoedittheorderandcoverpageoftheworkbook.Manyoftheworkbookimages
werecreatedinOmnigraffleandpastedasimagesintotheworkbook.
Handouts: Not all books in this series contain a workbook, since we generally only use workbooks in
trainingcourses.FortopicsthatworkwellindividuallyweprovidePDFsofhandoutsthatcanbeprinted
foreachparticipant.
Othermaterials:PDFscontainingmaterialstobeprintedandusedinvariouschapters.Eachchapterwill
referencetheseiftheyareneeded.Thesearedifferentineachbook.
Room layout
Wehavetrainedinavarietyofvenuesaroundtheworld,includingacomputertrainingcentre,abarand
atent!Roomlayoutcanhaveasignificantimpactonyourtraining.
Our preferred room layout is cabaret style. i.e. small round tables seating groups of five to seven
comfortably.Theroomshouldbelargeenoughtohaveopenspaceforsomeofthediscussions.Welook
for a room with dimensions 7m x 9m for 20 people, with four tables. Ideally the tables should be small
¹³http://www.ffonts.net/Lauren-C-Brown.font