The Agile Principles for Testers Part 2

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Face-to-face conversation has a lot of benefits. For one, it builds better relationships among team members. It also ensures that what one means to say can be conveyed better. Collocation and various communication tools give opportunities for the development team members to be able to reach out to each other more quickly. One could simply walk over to another person’s desk to immediately discuss some concerns, which can be resolved then and there. This is as opposed to passing messages to one another over emails, which are slow and can lead to misunderstandings due to lack of context.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Traditional projects typically require extensive documentation, tracking, and reporting of metrics such as defect density or percentage of defects by severity. Agile projects, on the other hand, value more when the product delivers value to the customers and is working as expected. Testers help ensure the product is working effectively through the detailed testing of the product features.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Being able to maintain a consistent pace helps simplify things in a project, since stakeholders know when and where to meet without having to look at the calendar. Time-boxing activities and following set velocities helps teams manage their work load and focus on the priorities at hand. This is important for testers, who are dependent on the developers to inform them of the product features for testing.

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

Technology is always evolving, and they can be in the form of a new API framework, a set of enhanced features for existing tools, or a redesigned user experience. More than checking the functionality and visuals of the product, testers need to be able to have a good breadth of technical understanding and design principles in order to be able to help bring out the best in the products they are developing. This will also help them communicate with other developers better and be able to help diagnose bugs.

10. Simplicity – the art of maximising the amount of work not done – is essential.

Agile aims to keep things simple in the product and the project. Instead of overloading the product with features, Agile teams can prioritise valuable features. Testers have the eye and experience for helping the Product Owner identify the work that needs to be prioritised, and the work that can be pushed back for later on.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organising teams.

Testers and developers can ensure that they are self-organising when they let go of command and control. Instead of having one person dictate how everything should be done, self-organising teams work together to find the best processes. Testers are better off collaborating with other developers and proactively thinking of scenarios that can help the team.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.

 A good practice for any individual is to check in on their performance – get feedback from peers and clients- and analyse how they can be better. Doing this regularly will help ensure that the individuals adjust their work accordingly and at a consistent interval. Testing processes are not easy in an Agile environment and can need lots of experimentation. After all, Agile is all about failing fast and failing often in order to be better at what teams do.

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Our Book Recommendations

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