Agile is.....

This post is inspired by the Michael Bolton post .. testing is...

I am becoming aware of more and more statements being made about the reduction in the need for dedicated testers in software development which follow the agile manifesto and principles. 

There is a growing call for developers to be both a tester and a developer and vice-versa.  Where the mantra is 'Everyone codes and everyone tests'.  I did a brief discussion on this topic in London for Tony Bruce.  In which we discussed the good and bad implications of this mantra.  Hopefully a new post will come out of that discussion at some point in the future.This post looks at what the agile manifesto and principles say in a testing context.  This is my thoughts on what the manifesto and principles of agile mean to testers and feel free to adapt,change, alter for your own purposes. When you come across people stating that there is no need for specialist testers in agile software development teams you can use some of the following:

• Agile among other things - is a word used to describe a manifesto and a set of principles for helping to develop software

• Agile among other things - is about delivering tested working software, which requires testing thinking skills

• Agile among other things - is about satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable tested software. 

• Agile among other things - is about using testing thinking skills to discover if the software is of value to the customer. 

• Agile among other things - is about empowering people to do good work, which requires people with testing expertise.

• Agile among other things - is about using testing skills to help deliver frequent working software.

• Agile among other things - is about using tools to support skilled testers.

• Agile among other things - is about people with a variety of experiences & skills working together to create products that customers want.

• Agile among other things - is about testing software so that the delivered software works in ways that a reasonable user expects.

• Agile among other things - is about producing working software where as much information about how the software behaves has been uncovered by skilled testers.

• Agile among other things - is about creating quality products using a diverse team with diverse range of skills and expertise.

• Agile among other things - is about working with people from a variety of backgrounds, programmers, testers, business, help desk, support and trusting them to develop working software.

• Agile among other things - is about testers informing others in the team by means of face to face communication what information of value they found during testing

• Agile among other things -  is about using automation tools to check  what you believe to be true is still true, but it does not replace skilled human testing.

• Agile among other things - is about being successful in delivering work tested software

• Agile among other things - is about embracing changes and having the confidence that the testers will uncover information of value regarding the changes made.