Agile Methodology and Agile Testing

Agile Methodology:-
It is a methodology to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. This is useful when we don't have a clear idea of the client's requirements. The development activities can be carried out using the iterative actions

It is very effective where Client frequently changes his requirement. Since it has more iteration so you can assure a solution that meets clients requirement. More than one build deployment for a project. It involves more client interaction and testing effort.

People believe that there is less documentation in Agile. But agile also includes documentation and it can be used either a small or a large projects. In agile Development, testing is also integrated throughout the life cycle. But for the testers, they will not have a good business requirement. So they have to get the details from the client or through the developer. The testers will do more of Quality Assurance work than testing.

Agile methodology helps us to increase productivity and reduce risks.

Agile Methodology- Characteristics:-
Ø Frequent Delivery
Ø More Iterations
Ø Test frequently
Ø Less defects

There are two methods by which this methodology can be implemented:-
1- Scrum
2- Extreme Programming
Scrum: Each iteration would called a scrum which can be a 1-2 Months. In Scrum Client priorities his requirements what he want first. If developer did not meets all the requirement which was being fixed for a particular scrum than rest of the development part would be transferred to the next scrum (would be delivered in the next build), means developer can't increase time decided for a scrum. Its fixed.
Extreme Programming (XP): here iteration period would be less then in scrum , which is being 2-4 weeks.
Here developer priorities what to do first on the basis of client requirement. This duration which was being fixed for a iteration, can be increase if the some development part is still pending. The build would deployed with having all the client needs. Thus iteration period is not fixed here it can be increase but iteration should meets all the client's requirement in this build. More attention is required for testing in XP.

What is Agile Testing?

“Agile testing involves testing from the customer perspective as early as possible, testing early and often as code becomes available and stable enough from module/unit level testing

The Challenges in Agile Testing:-

Agile Testers face lot of challenges when they are working with Agile development team. A tester should be able to apply Root-Cause Analysis when finding severe bugs so that they unlikely to reoccur. While Agile has different flavors, Scrum is one process for implementing Agile.
Some of the challenging scrum rules to be followed by every individual are

Obtain Number of Hours Commitment Up Front
Gather Requirements / Estimates Up Front
Entering the actual hours and estimated hours daily.
Daily Builds
Keep the Daily Scrum meetings short
Code Inspections are Paramount

So, in order to meet the above challenges, an agile tester needs to be innovative

How Testers Can be More Innovative in the Age of Agile Testing?
Here are Important Keys to Innovation:
1. Creative
A good Agile Tester needs to be extremely creative when trying to cope up with speed of development/release. For a tester, being creative is more important than being critical.
2. Talented
He must be highly talented and strives for more learning and innovating new ideas. Talented Testers are never satisfied with what they have achieved and always strives to find unimaginable bugs of high value and priority.
3. Fearless
An Agile Tester should not be afraid to look at a developer’s code and if need be, hopefully in extreme cases, go in and correct it.
4. Visionary
He must have a comprehensive vision, which includes client’s expectations and delivery of the good product.
5. Empowered
He must be empowered to work in Pairs. He will be involving in Pair Programming to bring shorter scripts, better designs and finding more bugs.
6. Passionate
Passionate Testers always have something unique to contribute that may be in terms of their innovative ideas, the way they carry day-to-day work, their outputs and improve things around them tirelessly.
7. Multiple Disciplines
Agile Tester must have multiple skills like, Manual, Functional, Performance testing skills and soft skills like Leadership skills, Communication skills, EI, etc. so that agile testing will become a cake walk.