Agile Testing

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7 Best Practices for Agile Testing Gallop

Agile testing is basically a type of software testing practice that helps the developers in easily adapting and responding to the sudden and rapid changes. It follows the principles of Agile software development. The basic difference of agile testing and  conventional testing is that, in case of agile testing the responsibilities are shared equally by each team member. It makes every single member of a team responsible for the quality as well as the outcome of a final product.

Agile methodology has of late become quite popular. Though its origin is tied to software development, it has now spread to many industries. Being an important methodology in terms of software testing and development to ensure quality, the project managers accordingly need to be aware and familiar with the best practices associated with it. Following 7 best practices of Agile testing can bring about potential benefit to organizations implementing Agile testing:

1. Continuous Integration

This is essential as continuous integration of the code helps to keep the same updated. It is indeed a good practice as it helps to get fast feedback on the latest check-ins. All the written codes need to be verified before they are connected with the old code. Continuous integration of the code leads to simplification of the new user stories

2.      System Metaphor

This is also a practice that needs to be followed as descriptive class as well as function names help in a better understanding of the code.

3.  Code standard

Creating a coding standard is recommended before starting with the coding process. Using an uniform style with respect to coding is good as any member of a team can take the code of some other member and work on the same as his/her own.

4.      Shippable Code

Having a package code that is working is also necessary. Along with the recurrent release of the code with the package, the client gets an assurance of receiving the business value that is expected within a short time.

5.      Test-Driven Development

It is advisable to engage in setting up the environment that makes it easier to create the unit tests before starting with the process of coding. However with the Test Driven Development approach, all sessions start with writing of the programming adaptive tests that the unit tests succeed.

6.      SCRUM meetings

In these meetings, generally lasting for roughly 10 minutes, ideally the entire team dealing with the project should be present. It is helpful as it serves as a yardstick with respect to the progress of the work as to discuss the amount of job done the day before, the agenda for the present day as well as the goals for the near future along with checking for any hurdles that might obstruct the flow of job.

These meetings however demand a good scrum master who can direct the discussions to something positive and fruitful and not to sheer wastage of precious time.

7.      Release Planning

Planning needs to be undertaken regarding the release of the product. The calendar determining the releases should send a clear message to all regarding the expectation for the functionality of the new software.

Moreover release planning if done appropriately helps in correcting the code in case all the versions support automated testing as well as its integration with all other constituents. Agile Testing also provides the company with a number of benefits

-          It reduces costs and helps in increasing market share as well as revenues. -          Agile Testing offers faster time to market the product once the coding is completed by the development team. -          Agile testing also improves quality through a number of tools that help in automation and emphasize on quality. -          It keeps the customers as well as the employees happy. Since agile development is purely people-centric, one needs to ensure adherence to certain values and principles that paves the way for collaboration and constructive criticism. The important constituent with respect to the agile testing mindset is the force that drives the team to continually look for out more efficient and better methods.

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How to move from traditional testing to agile

Agile testing is the order of the day and many testers are switching from traditional  Agile testing practice. In this context, it is needed to say that, business requirements for Agile testing practice are different from that of their traditional counterparts. Agile methods are considered healthier by modern testers. Also, the test cases that are prepared for agile testing are quite different from the traditional testing.

Why you need to shift from traditional to agile testing?

One of the advantages of agile testing is that it focuses on automation. In this regard, Agile testing practice includes automated acceptance tests. It also creates regression test plans as part of the continuous integration associated with software development. 

It is evident that traditional testers are very much dependent on documents. On the contrary agile testers do not use too many documents. Neither do they had to write lengthy test cases. In short, it can be said that agile testers work is very much reduced in agile testing methodology. Agile testers need to be communicative and they require gathering information pertaining to their tasks through verbal, virtual or written communication.

Enterprises discover the various challenges associated with traditional testing. These incorporate delay in writing test cases which causes a corresponding delay in software development. Often defects are found later and then making changes in the design and development of software becomes a bit complicated. 

Traditional testing practice is quite rigid and so an alteration in business requirements affect previously developed test cases. Also, there are risks associated with the communication process involved in the traditional practice. Most importantly, product quality is adversely affected if the  product is scheduled to be delivered within a fixed release date.

These disadvantages associated with traditional testing are removed with agile testing. Unlike traditional, agile allows the testers to get rid of any ambiguity at the correct moment. Moreover,  it enables early detection of technical or testing challenges, dependencies and roadblocks. If there are any changes then the same are considered healthy so far as software development is concerned and are included to develop efficient systems. If you are shunning the concept of traditional testing and embracing agile counterpart, then you can observe, that effective team collaboration helps team members to work together and attain a common objective. Most importantly in agile testing, quality  matters the most and acceptance criteria is decided long before the developer embarks upon the process of software development.

Steps needed to move from traditional to agile testing

So if you are looking to move from traditional testing to agile, then you can expect the software products that are developed to be released as per the schedules. Unlike the traditional one, where product release is delayed, postponed primarily because there are changes suggested in the specified requirements even at the time of product release. Moreover, requirement study and subsequent writing of test plans becomes a lengthy process for the testers. Conversion to an agile environment for testing purposes require testers to act promptly, implying rapid feedback, thereby allowing the testing and developing team to proceed forward. In agile testing procedure information shared by the testers is meaningful and easily comprehended by the participating professionals. Overall, it can be stated that it is grossly beneficial to the business as a whole.

Benefits of Agile Testing

Apparently it sounds bizarre to even conceive that requirement definition, testing and product delivery can be accomplished within a month. But with agile testing, the time for testing is very much reduced. So a transition from traditional testing to agile testing implies the use of automation. It reduces significantly manual labor so far as testing is concerned. It can therefore be said without any obfuscation that agile testing enhances the efficiency and productivity in IT enterprises.

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Top 5 BDD testing Frameworks for Agile projects

In software engineering, Behavior Driven Development or BDD is primarily a process related to the development of software. Associated with software engineering, BDD basically owes its origin to Test Driven Development or TDD.

BDD is primarily the outcome of the evolution of Acceptance Test driven Design and Test Driven Development.

Uses

BDD is a combination of all the principles and techniques of TDD along with ideas that come from designs that are domain-driven as well as those that are accompanied by are object-oriented designs.

-          BDD is widely used in support of test design, language design and those related to user experience besides providing general support for unit design.

-          These actually facilitate various management teams as well as software development teams in efficient collaboration on software development along with shared processes and shared tools.

Various BDD frameworks are used for acceptance testing in various agile projects.BDD works in a very simple manner. It basically acts as a bridge that joins the gap between the business language or User Stories and Automatic Tests like JUnit, TestNG, etc.

JDave

It is a BDD framework for Java that is applied in various agile projects. This framework is inspired by rspec and integrates JMock 2 as the mocking framework and uses Hamcrest as matching library. The framework makes use of JUnit adapter for launching JDave specifications. This makes it possible for building tools and offer tool support from the first day besides facilitating in IDE development. It also provides an easier way to specify the behavior of the classes with respect to documentation.

FitNesse

FitNesse ranks amongst the oldest as well as the best tools in case of Behavior Driven Development framework. It is a great framework applied to various agile projects as it helps in reflecting on the problems and features that the user may come across, with respect to the business language rather than that of the code.

The framework makes it necessary for the user to be focused on the data in the tests. Moreover this tool has the provision of being included easily with respect to an environment characterized by continuous integration.  The framework also can be shared easily even with the users who are not essentially the developers.

JBehave

JBehave is another Behavior Driven Development framework. It is highly powerful as well as flexible, results in extensive documentation in case it is fragmented. It provides huge support for various frameworks and environments. JBehave helps in good separation with respect to that of the story files from code.

It intends to make these practices even more accessible as well as intuitive to the experts and newcomers in an identical way. This type of BDD framework that is applied to agile projects results in a vocabulary a shift from test based to that based on behavior while positioning itself as a design philosophy.

Cucumber

Cucumber is one of the most well known and actively used BDD frameworks applied to agile projects.It is a tool that results in executing the plain-text functional descriptions as automated tests. Cucumber works on a language called Gherkin. The basic intention of Cucumber if considered as a testing tool is to provide great support Behavior Driven Development.

This implies that these tests are basically written in the beginning. They are then verified by domain experts, business analysts, etc to ensure greater accuracy. Production code in this case is written outside-in for helping in the stories to pass.

Spinach

Spinach is yet another high-level framework related to Behavior Driven Development framework. It helps in leveraging the Gherkin language that is used by Cucumber for enabling the user in defining the executable specifications of the acceptance criteria of the relevant library or the application.

Although it constitutes an idea regarding the management of software development by technical insight and business interests, BDD actually assumes using specialized software tools for supporting the development process. These tools actually help in adding automation to the language which is in fact the central theme of Behavior Driven Development.

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5 ways Agile Testing Methodologies help you transform Projects

Agile testing methodology aims at building better software with a more focussed approach which emphasizes on individuals, interactions and responding to changes with a quick turnaround time. Agile project management technique strives to build teams which collaborate, communicate and are responsive throughout the development process. Agile testing follows the same principles of agile workflow and delivers software tested for errors, performances and functionality. Needless to say, Agile testing accelerates your software test lifecycle.

  Manifesto for Agile Software Development states that:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

  Agile though uses the same modules which exists in the traditional waterfall model which moves from requirements to design to implementation to verification to maintenance, it does not differentiate between modules and they do not move one after another but together. Developers and testers work in parallel and aim at delivering small set of software patches. Thus the testers do not wait till the code is finished and are most robust bridging the line between testers and developers. They behave more like developers in their approach and work towards getting better software product out instead of just logging more bugs.

Here are top 5 ways agile testing methodologies help transform your software projects:

   Handling Changing Requirements better

With Agile way, there is no rigid adherence to requirements and the focus is to satisfy the customer’s requests – User experience takes Center stage. Like any software, the requirements keep changing with business objectives and agile testing is more than equipped to handle this. With developers and testers working closely as a single unit wearing each other’s hat and testers focussed on quality of the software, the customer’s requests are better handled and implemented quicker without much impact on the remaining modules.

   Aims at Continuous Delivery

Agile breaks down the requirements into iterations and aims at continuous delivery. With iterative development approach, agile produces frequent working versions of the final software which is checked for requirements, coding errors and tested. Each version implements a set of features as per client’s need and is part of the final software. Being tested for all frequent iterations makes the final software more robust and the implications are less when the final software is tested resulting in a high quality software.

    Results in Better interactions

Agile implements a collaborative approach where project managers, architects, leads, developers and testers work together with regular short interval dialogues internally which leads to better communication with customer and end users. It also results in better responsiveness to ever-changing project requirements, better coordination between developers and testers, and in turn a software which adheres to overall quality aspects and goal of project.

    Creates Self-organizing teams

Agile creates self-organizing project teams which are unified in their approach and have a single goal of delivering better software. It replaces the siloed functions of the traditional software development process and brings better coordinating teams working more closely to fulfil the requirements of the client with every iteration.

   Simplicity

Agile methodology leads to simplicity bringing teams together and make them think in a more creative way coming up with solutions to complex problems. With Agile, tester’s priority is not to find bugs and get relieved but to work towards an efficient software by following a more open approach then a bookish approach towards testing. Agile in itself means more flexible, adaptable, and that way of style implemented in testing approach eases the complicated business of software production and testing.

Agile proposes to be a faster, more engaging and collaborative in approach and thus requires a team which adopts the agile working style leaving behind the traditional approach of software development. It requires a total cultural shift leaving behind the standard set of tools and processes and moving into people oriented approach.

If you are looking for Agile Software Testing services or are looking at hiring services of an Agile Software Testing company, please reach out to us and we will be glad to assist.