Acceptance Testing of Agile User Stories
One of the main reasons for the growing popularity of Agile project management is the ability to meet customer expectations. This is done firstly by stripping the proposed product down to its essentials, leaving only what is known as the Minimum Viable Product. The product description is then gradually broken down into User Stories, which are the simplest expressions of a user’s requirements at the most granular level.
This is done either by the Product Owner or under his care by members of the agile team. In order to match the customer’s expectations, every user story has a set of acceptance criteria which are defined by the Product Owner, based on his experience and knowledge of the organization and how it operates. The acceptance criteria are explained to the team who will be responsible for drawing up the tests for acceptance in accordance with these criteria.
The Right Time for Creating Test Cases
It is never too early to start specifying testing; the moment you have the requirements and the acceptance criteria, you have everything you need to design your tests. A good time to start with the test cases is at the same time that you are writing a user story; the customer is thinking about his requirement (as the user story states: “I want…”) and has clear expectations of what would produce a successful outcome in his eyes. Those expectations translate into the acceptance criteria and how you will demonstrate that you have satisfied those criteria. To start specifying test cases after development is far too late. This applies to traditional SDLC development as well as Agile.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course:
Course Contents
Section 1: Agile Project Management
Section 2: Using the Agile Manifesto to Deliver Change
Section 3: The 12 Agile Principles
Section 4: The Agile Fundamentals
Section 5: The Declaration of Interdependence
Section 6: Agile Development Frameworks
Section 7: Introduction to Scrum
Section 8: Scrum Projects
Section 9: Scrum Project Roles
Section 10: Meet the Scrum Team
Section 11: Building the Scrum Team
Section 12: Scrum in Projects, Programs & Portfolios
Section 13: How to Manage an Agile Project
Section 14: Leadership Styles
Section 15: The Agile Project Life-cycle
Section 16: Business Justification with Agile
Section 17: Calculating the Benefits With Agile
Section 18: Quality in Agile
Section 19: Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 20: Quality Management in Scrum
Section 21: Change in Scrum
Section 22: Integrating Change in Scrum
Section 23: Managing Change in Scrum
Section 24: Risk in Scrum
Section 25: Risk Assessment Techniques
Section 26: Initiating an Agile Project
Section 27: Forming the Scrum Team
Section 28: Epics and Personas
Section 29: Creating the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 30: Conduct Release Planning
Section 31: The Project Business Case
Section 32: Planning in Scrum
Section 33: Scrum Boards
Section 34: Sprint Planning
Section 35: User Stories
Section 36: User Stories and Tasks
Section 37: The Sprint Backlog
Section 38: Implementation of Scrum
Section 39: The Daily Scrum
Section 40: The Product Backlog
Section 41: Scrum Charts
Section 42: Review and Retrospective
Section 43: Scrum of Scrums
Section 44: Validating a Sprint
Section 45: Retrospective Sprint
Section 46: Releasing the Product
Section 47: Project Retrospective
Section 48: The Communication Plan
Section 49: Formal Business Sign-off
Section 50: Scaling Scrum
Section 51: Stakeholders
Section 52: Programs and Portfolios