What Testers Can Learn to Collaborate Effectively with Programmers, others

Copyright 2015: Lisa Crispin

Speaking Their Language: What Testers Can Learn to Work Effec8vely with Coders

Lisa Crispin Agile Tes)ng: A Prac)cal Guide for Testers and Agile Teams More Agile Tes)ng: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team


A li?le about me

With Janet Gregory: Agile Tes)ng 2009

More Agile Tes)ng Oct 2014

www.lisacrispin.com www.agiletester.ca

First agile team – 2000 Currently tester on Pivotal Tracker team

Twi?er: @lisacrispin Email: [email protected]


And, donkeys


•  We work on cross-‐func8onal teams (or hope to) •  Whole team approach to build quality in •  What more should we learn? •  Thinking skills •  Technical awareness

•  We will brainstorm together!

Expecta8ons


What programmers say:

We can communicate so much better with a tester who understands programming concepts


Wait a minute…

Shouldn’t programmers learn about testing so they can work better with testers?

Of course, but that’s a whole different session!

Mul8-‐ discipline skills

Expert / Discipline skills

T-‐Shaped Skills


Breadth of Skills

Dep

th o

f Ski

lls

Square-‐shaped Team

See links for more by Rob Lambert and Adam P. Knight


Cube-‐shaped skills!

Idea from Marcelo Leite


Thinking skills


Communicate though^ully

Does my bum look big in this?


Inform Construc8vely

●  Be tac^ul ●  Keep it about the problem ●  Describe the situa8on ●  Be specific ●  Keep calm ●  Listen


Turn on your listening ears

Be careful about assumptions


Shared understanding

●  Small differences can cause big mispercep8ons

●  The classic “8re swing” metaphor -‐ each stakeholder has own viewpoint, agenda

●  Use techniques to build shared understanding


A few techniques for shared understanding

√


Impact Mapping – Gojko Adzic

•  Why are we doing this? -‐-‐-‐ the goal •  Who can help or hinder? -‐-‐-‐ the stakeholders •  How can they help or hinder? -‐-‐-‐ the impacts! •  What can we do to help? -‐-‐-‐ the deliverables

www.impactmapping.org


Story Mapping

Ac8vi8es by 8me

Child Storie

s

Slide From Janet Gregory & MaC Barcomb


19

Agile Tes8ng Quadrants

PlanningModels

Pair! Tester-Designer

Tester-Support

Tester-Tester

Tester-Coder

Analyst, DBA, Sys Admin, Customer…

Tester-Marketer


ATDD/SBE/BDD: guide development with tests


Technical Awareness


Programming Concepts

Common Vocabulary


IDEs

If you use same tools as teammates…

…they can more easily help you


Database Knowledge

Learn Data Model

Tools such as SQL Developer

Online SQL tutorials

Make friends with your database experts!


Maintain your own test environments •  Linux/Unix •  Windows •  Mac •  Deploys

Maintaining Environments


Domain Knowledge


Bring it all together – add value

Earn your credibility


What else?

•  Form groups of 5 – 6 people •  What else can testers learn to work more

effec8vely with programmers?

•  Mind map, draw, use s8ckies, whatever helps you brainstorm

•  Appoint a spokesperson & share your top 2 items with everyone


Share Your Ideas


More learning •  Adzic, Gojko, Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with SoHware Products and

Projects, 2012a h?p://impactmapping.org •  Adzic, Gojko, Specifica)on by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right

SoHware, Manning, 2011 •  Gärtner, Markus, ATDD By Example: A Prac)cal Guide to Acceptance Test-‐Driven

Development, Addison-‐Wesley, 2012a •  Keogh, Liz, h?p://lunivore.com -‐ look for her posts on BDD, Real Op8ons •  Lambert, Rob, "T-‐shaped Testers and Their Role In a Team", h?p://

thesocialtester.co.uk/t-‐shaped-‐testers-‐and-‐their-‐role-‐in-‐a-‐team/ , 2012 •  Karten, Naomi, "Are You Listening?", h?p://www.agileconnec8on.com/ar8cle/are-‐

you-‐listening, Agile Connec8on, 2009 •  Knight, Adam P., "T-‐shaped Tester, Square Shaped Team", h?p://

thesocialtester.co.uk/t-‐shaped-‐tester-‐square-‐shaped-‐team/, 2013 •  Levison, Mark, "The Beginner's Mind -‐ An Approach to Listening", h?p://

www.infoq.com/news/2008/08/beginners_mind, InfoQ, 2008 •  McMillan, Darren, "Mind Mapping 101", for Tes8ng: h?p://

www.be?ertes8ng.co.uk/content/?p=956, 2011 •  Pa?on, Jeff, User Story Mapping, 2014 •  Wynne, Ma? and Aslak Hellesoy, The Cucumber Book: Behavior-‐Driven

Development for Testers and Developers, Pragma8c Programmers, 2012


What will YOU learn next?

Software

What Testers Can Learn to Collaborate Effectively with Programmers, others