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.

Latest Chapter of Book Published - Being Creative

I have published the latest chapter of my book The Psychology of Software Testing entitled 'Being Creative'.  This has been one of the most enjoyable chapters I have worked on and one that I am very proud of.  The following is a short extract from this chapter.

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What is Creativity

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while."

 Steve Jobs - Wired Magazine

Many have a misconception of what being creative means.  Take a moment to note down some words that you feel describe creativity.

Did any of your words match the ones below?

Creativity can be all of these are more. It does not help that there are a variety of definitions of creativity for example:

"Creative thinking is the generation of new ideas.”

Creative and Critical Thinking Definitions - NC State University

or

"Creativity is the ability to combine ideas, things, techniques or approaches in a new way." 

Aiken L R, (1973) - Ability and creativity in Mathematics

Doppelt gives a good reason why it is so difficult to define creativity:

"Creativity is one of the words in the English Language which means many things to many people.  At various times it may mean different things to the same person."Doppelt J E 2012. What is creativity?

There is no correct definition for being creative and that is wonderful in itself, since you have no barriers to being creative.

When we talk about creating ideas it does not necessarily mean creating or coming up with something new.  The idea  or concept you came up with is new it may not be game changing or revolutionary.  The majority of ideas come from existing ideas or a combination of different ideas to create a new idea.

Software testing involves large amounts of creative thinking and not just during the test planning phase.  When   testing software we use creative processes to discover, uncover and learn.  When testing we should utilize these natural creative processes to guide our direction and future opportunities to test.  The majority of testers do this without even being aware that this is happening.  If you are following a test script or a testing charter how often do you go off the beaten track because you thought of a new creative approach?

To put this in another way, how often do you find ways to test the software that is both novel and unique?  Capturing this creative process is useful since you then have a record of your thinking at that time, which can help to produce even more ideas.  The creative process is iterative and by creating new ideas you end up utilizing these ideas to create even more ideas.

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This chapter also includes some extras

• Creativity Cue Cards
• Software Testing SCAMPER poster
• Software Quality Characteristics Poster
• A JavaScript ideas generator

I will be presenting some of this material at the London Tester Gathering Workshops:

Creative and Critical Thinking and Testing Workshop

Thursday 16th and Friday 17th October 2014

The Skills Matter eXchange

116-120 Goswell Road,

 London, 

EC1V 7DP, 

GB