We Are Doing Agile But, But, But …
“We are doing agile, but the only tests we do in a sprint are unit tests” or “We are doing agile, but we have a hardening phase at the end, which is really more of a system integration test” or “We are doing agile, but testing is done by a separate test team.” Sound familiar? Gitte Ottosen says that these agile transition failures prevent teams from getting the maximum value out of the agile context. Failing to create a mindset and environment where quality is built-in continuously and testing is an integrated part of the development lifecycle are risks not only to quality in classical terms but also to the core agile principle of delivering working software of value to the customer. Gitte describes some challenges of an agile transition as seen through testers’ eyes and gives inspiration to practical initiatives: proactively using the testers toolbox to gain a better understanding of the user’s needs, getting tests integrated in the daily work rather than late in the sprint, and introducing test automation. All these activities can get a team started with a more test-infected way of working and thinking—to ensure we deliver working software of value to our customer.
Gitte Ottosen is a managing consultant at Capgemini-Sogeti Denmark. A career tester, Gitte has twenty-two years of test engineering and test management experience in both traditional and agile contexts. She has worked with test process improvement, first as a test architect/manager at Systematic and more recently as a test coach for large private and public companies in Denmark. A self-confessed test evangelist who preaches the need for a structured and committed approach to testing, Gitte is a strong advocate for a context-driven approach, a role requiring profound professional insight, passion, and persistence. A Fellow within SogetiLabs, Gitte holds a number of testing and agile certifications—ISEB Practitioner, CAT, TMap Test Engineer, and Certified ScrumMaster.