1. The Three Pillars Approach to Your Agile Test Strategy
Bob Galen
President & Principal Consultant
RGCG, LLC

2. Good morning!
And welcome to our webinar, “Creating Sprint Reviews that attract, engage and enlighten your customers”
My name is Greg Erickson, ** and I am Director of New Business with Velocity Partners.
Before we get started with Bob’s presentation I like to provide a quick overview of our company.
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3. About Velocity Partners
Better business through better software
HQ in Seattle
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams
Offices in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia
Alignment with North America
Highly collaborative agile development
Our people make the difference!
Velocity Partners is dedicated to the creation of high quality software applications. Our clients range from start-up software companies to internationally known brands.
Large or small, their business success is contingent on innovative technology.
Our model is “Nearshore distributed agile teams”. We are headquartered in Seattle and have 400 people working in 5 offices in South America:
Rosario, Paran~a and Buenos Aires, in Argentina
Montevideo, Uruguay
And Medellin, Columbia
BTW, Medellin is striving to become South America’s Silicon Valley. Last year it was chosen by the Urban Land Institute, ** the Wall Street Journal Magazine ** and Citigroup as the world’s most innovative urban area, ** beating out fellow finalists New York and Tel Aviv.
Our highly collaborative approach is enabled by several factors:
Good time zone alignment – Locations in North America are within 1 to 4 hours of our South American offices.
Excellent technology infrastructure and our modern offices enhance real time interactions with our clients.
** And our people - ** They are passionate technical Agilists who possess superior English language skills and are the beneficiaries of excellent University systems.
All team members participate in ongoing training and coaching ** and our attrition rate in less than 5% annually.
[note – not sure I will use this, what do you think?]
But the proof is in the pudding and here is what one of our clients told us:
While I wish we could get more of your team in here sooner, I am also very grateful that you have the patience and integrity to look for the right people, rather than sending us anyone who walks in with “Java” on their resume. Your team members are true professionals and it makes all the difference in the world. “Thank you" is an understatement - we could not have found a better partner at a better time.
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4. Housekeeping
If you’re having technical issues, please send a message to the organizer, via GotoWebinar
Questions encouraged! Please send them via the GotoWebinar question box.
There will also be a brief (time allowed) Q&A at the end of the webinar
Presentation deck & recording will be made available
Just a few housekeeping announcements at this time. We encourage your questions throughout the presentation. Please send them to me and I will forward them to Bob as time permits during our hour together.
There will also be a Q&A session at the end of the webinar.
Bob’s presentation deck and a recording of this webinar will be made available.
At this time, ** I would like to Introduce Bob Galen.
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5. Introduction Bob Galen
Bob Galen - Agile Methodologist, Practitioner & Coach
Principle Agile Evangelist at Velocity Partners and President of RGCG, LLC.
He is also the author of the books:
Agile Reflections
Scrum Product Ownership
Contact:
Bob Galen is an Agile Methodologist, Practitioner **and** Coach based in Cary, North Carolina
In this role he helps guide companies *and* teams in their pragmatic adoption **and organizational shift** towards Scrum and other Agile methods.
He is currently Principle Agile Evangelist at Velocity Partners, *** and President of Robert Galen Consulting Group
Bob regularly speaks at international conferences ** and professional groups** on a broad range topics related to software development.
He is also the author of the books:
Agile Reflections
And Scrum Product Ownership
Bob – take it away!
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6. 3-Pillars Genesis
First of all, I’ve seen way too many teams who are just “testing” in agile teams without a map or a plan for improvement
I’ve also seen that Agile Adoption is mostly a developer-centric or technology-centric play. They “drive” and testing is “along for the ride”.
Seatbelts please!
And where’s the focus on “Quality”?
And the how or practices & tactics
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7. 3-Pillars Genesis I’ve learned that “Balance” is important
A sad tale of:
Thousands of ATDD testing; Gherkin run amok
All of them are working; continuously testing; increasing “coverage’ and life is Good!
BUT
These same teams couldn’t write a cohesive User Story to save their life
So, where were the Acceptance Tests coming from?
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8. 3-Pillars of Agile Quality
Development & Test Automation
Pyramid-based Strategy: (Unit + Cucumber + Selenium)
Continuous Integration
Attack technical infrastructure in the Backlog
Visual Feedback – Dashboards
Actively practice ATDD and BDD
Software Testing
Risk-based testing: Functional & Non-Functional
Test Release & Sprint levels
Exploratory Testing
Standards – checklists, templates, repositories
Balance across manual, exploratory & automation
Cross-Functional Team Practices
Team-based Pairing
Stop-the-Line Mindset
Code Reviews & Standards
Active Done-Ness
Aggressive Refactoring of Technical Debt
User Stories, “3 Amigo” based Conversations
Whole Team Ownership of “Quality”
Knowing the Right Thing to Build; And Building it Right
Healthy – Agile Centric Metrics
Steering via: Center of Excellence or Community of Practice
Strategic balance across 3 Pillars; Assessment, Recalibration, and Continuous Improvement
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9. Foundation of the 3-Pillars
Whole team view includes building it right, everyone tests, everyone demo’s, etc.
Focus on features/stories, confirmation, conversation, and getting them staged properly OVER testing
4-tier metrics: Quality, Value, Prediction, Team
Agile strategies need light-handed “steering”; establish a CoE (heavier weight) or a CoP (lightweight)
Consider finding an assessment framework and then tying it to your strategy measurement, recalibration, and continuous improvement.
Make the foundation visible thru information radiators and metrics
Whole Team Ownership of “Quality”
Knowing the “Right” thing to Build AND Building it “Right”
Healthy – Agile Centric Metrics
Steering Required – CoE or CoP
Strategic balance across 3 Pillars; Assessment, Recalibration, and Continuous Improvement
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10. 3-Pillars of Agile Quality
A central part of agile adoption is focusing on CI, 3-tiered Automation development, and Dashboards to begin incrementally building coverage for faster feedback on changes.
100% automation is NOT the Goal!
In the interim, Hardening or Stabilization Sprints and having a risk-based Release Train concept help
It’s important that Test or QA not ‘own’ the tooling or all of the automation efforts. The strategy can come from QA, but the tactical automation development is best left to the team.
Mature teams invest in Automation, Tooling, and Technical Debt reduction as part of Done-ness and continually add it to their backlogs
Development & Test Automation
Pyramid-based Strategy: (Unit + Cucumber + Selenium)
Continuous Integration
Attack technical infrastructure in the Backlog
Visual Feedback – Dashboards
Actively practice ATDD and BDD
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11. 3-Pillars of Agile Quality
Exploratory Testing (SBET with pairing) can be an incredibly effective way to establish a whole-team, collaborative view towards quality and testing. It also emerges new tests.
Leverage ‘plans’ as a whole-team collaboration-conversation mechanism; at Sprint and Release levels.
Do not measure testing or tester progress; instead, measure throughput, output, sprint outcomes, and done-ness escapes at a team level.
You need a balanced test team; not everyone needs to be able to program. But everyone needs to be passionately skilled testers with curiosity.
Agile testing is a Risk-Based play in every Sprint and across a release sequence.
Software Testing
Risk-based testing: Functional & Non-Functional
Test Release & Sprint levels
Exploratory Testing
Standards – checklists, templates, repositories
Balance across manual, exploratory & automation
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12. 3-Pillars of Agile Quality
Cross-Functional Team Practices
Team-based Pairing
Stop-the-Line Mindset
Code Reviews & Standards
Active Done-Ness
Aggressive Refactoring of Technical Debt
User Stories – 3 Amigo based Conversations
One of the hardest areas to get ‘right’ culturally. It needs leadership alignment from Quality/Testing to Product to Development and a consistent voice of whole-team approaches.
This is where LEAN Thinking lives, where whole-team collaboration happens, where professionalism and craftsmanship are held dear.
I like the view of testers becoming the VOC, champions of quality, and consistent questioners of what is being build. Are we solving the right problems…as simply as possible. Notions of Minimal Viable Product / Feature help with focus.
And yes Virginia, there ARE standards, templates, and a focus on x-team consistency!
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13. Software Testing Strategies
It ALL starts with empowering testers AND creating a Whole-Team view towards Quality
Critical Early Steps:
Creating a sense of empowered Functional Team
Applying Testing Standards across all teams
Contribute to non-trivial Definition of Done
Deploying Exploratory Testing across all teams
Defining a core set of Agile KPI / metrics
ACTIVE participants in Sprint Planning & Backlog Refinement
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14. Cross-Functional Team Practices Strategies
Training
Agile / Lean in general, Story writing, Acceptance, Unit testing, etc.
Teaming – for example: feedback or 5 Dysfunctions / Trust
Critical Early Steps:
Coaches & Scrum Masters to reinforce: Pairing / Swarming; WIP Limits across teams
Define prescriptive and aggressive Done-Ness for ALL teams
Implement coding standards & code reviews (appropriate for technology stacks)
Release Planning BEFORE allowing a team to start Sprint #1
Backlogs have Bug + Refactoring + Automation targets (20%)?
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15. Organizational Quality Strategies - Tips
Continuously communicate your unified Vision
Your strategy must be aligned/shared across:
Development, Quality/Testing, and Product
Keep working your strategy across the pillars
Don’t get stuck with too narrow a focus (easy road)
Make your strategy visible (Information Radiators)
Show progress (Ex: burn up of test automation coverage…across tiers)
Visualize organizational impediments to your Agile Quality strategies
Attack them!
Quarterly read-outs on progress, plans and adjustments
Listen to your teams; Celebrate successes!
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16. 3-Pillars of Agile Quality – QUESTIONS?
Development & Test Automation
Pyramid-based Strategy: (Unit + Cucumber + Selenium)
Continuous Integration
Attack technical infrastructure in the Backlog
Visual Feedback – Dashboards
Actively practice ATDD and BDD
Software Testing
Risk-based testing: Functional & Non-Functional
Test Release & Sprint levels
Exploratory Testing
Standards – checklists, templates, repositories
Balance across manual, exploratory & automation
Cross-Functional Team Practices
Team-based Pairing
Stop-the-Line Mindset
Code Reviews & Standards
Active Done-Ness
Aggressive Refactoring of Technical Debt
User Stories, “3 Amigo” based Conversations
Whole Team Ownership of “Quality”
Knowing the Right Thing to Build; And Building it Right
Healthy – Agile Centric Metrics
Steering via: Center of Excellence or Community of Practice
Strategic balance across 3 Pillars; Assessment, Recalibration, and Continuous Improvement
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17. Slides… and other references
A follow-up will tell you how to get a copy of the recorded webinar and the slides.
We also encourage you to join our Velocity Partners mailing list here.
And please visit our blog:
Thank you, Bob!
At this time we welcome your questions as time permits….
[when questions dwindle go to NEXT slide]
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18. Wrap-up
Get a free copy of my 3-Pillars book by joining my RGCG mailing list at: –
Thank you!
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19. Experience-driven agile focused training, coaching & consulting
Contact Info
Bob Galen
Principal Consultant,
RGalen Consulting Group, L.L.C.
Experience-driven agile focused training, coaching & consulting
Cell: (919)
Blogs
Project Times -
BA Times -
Podcast on all things ‘agile’ -
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20. Thank you! Feedback / requests for future webinar topics;
Request a video copy of the webinar;
Sales inquiries; Coaching inquiries; please reach out to:
Brian Estep
Senior Partner
(425)
We hope to see you at our next webinar…
Thank you for joining us today. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Bob or myself. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next event.
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21. Agile Test Automation Pyramid Mike Cohn; Lisa Crispin & Janet Gregory
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