business awareness of testers and the quality of testing
TRANSCRIPT
Hier soll der Titel reinTest Organisation State of the Art
www.qs-tag.de
Organizer: imbus AG www.qs-tag.de
Business awareness of testers and the quality of testing Karolina ZmitrowiczQuale Magazine
Soft skills in testing
Instead of agenda
What do you need to be a good tester?
To be a good tester
You need to know the discipline Knowledge of development process Knowledge of testing proces Practical knowledge about test techniques Experience in using tools supporting testing
Anything else?
To be a good tester
Your role can be considered as a bridge between the business and the development
You work with people: Analysts Developers Customers End users
You work with people representing different background, knowledge, sometimes culture
To be a good tester
Where are you on this picture?
To be a good tester
What else do you need? Processes, techniques and tools are not enough Working with people requires special skills
Therefore, the next step to be a good tester is gathering soft skills: Communication Negotiation Patience Understanding
To be a good tester
Test proces, techniques, tools + soft skills = ?
It is still not enough
You are responsible for providing objective information about the test object.
To be able to do it, you need to understand the object.
Business awareness of testers and the quality of testing
Why this topic?
Consider the following „typical” requirements
I want a cat.The cat should have 4 legs, 2 eyes and 2
ears.The cat should be provided in 2 weeks
Why this topic?
What features would you test for?Why do you want to test it like that?
Why this topic?
What design based on these requirements could development offer?
There are many options like:
Why this topic?
Fortunatelly, we have business analysts!
The cat after detailed requirements analysis:
Why this topic?
Coming back to our requirments…The cat after development and some reworks coming from your
feedback…
Why this topic?
Now, let’s assume that the customer has specific requirements and wanted a cat like this…
It seems you didn’t build the right product…
So? Is it a problem?Actually it is…
Why this topic?
Gaps in the proces resulted in the cost of:
Conclusion
How many of you are „cat experts”?
• Collect requirements• Validate requirements• Design the right product• Test for the right product
You need to know the „domain” to be able to
The only thing more expensive than writing software is writing bad softwareDouglas Adams
Business knowledge and testing
Your responsibility as a tester is not only to simply execute test cases
You also design tests and plan their execution
Because of this, you need to understand what are you going to test:• You need to understand requirements• You need to „see” the business context of the system and the whole project• You need to understand the purpose of the products and its impact on testing
Ok, you may say – requirements should clearly say what to test
Business knowledge and testing
The problem is: The requirements are often poorly documented The requirements are often missing The requirements are often inconsistent
The second problem is that to claim requirements as not good, you must know the business area
In other case, how can you know that you are testing „the right cat”?
The system should be usable
The system should be fast
Let me tell you a story
Once upon a time…
There was a test team in charge of testing a banking application
The problem was they had no idea about banking…
Let me tell you a story
Their internal testing was very successful… no serious bugs!!
Then they came to the customer … and things changed
Let me tell you a story
Results:Branch and till balancing not working correctly Branch reporting not working correctlyDevices not working as supposedTransactions taking too longBusiness rules… what business rules???
Should it balance??
Since when?!
Oh… does it matter?
It looks different than the
simulators….
Let me tell you a story
Solution:Involving the customer in testing Working close with business analysts from the
bank to clarify requirementsDetailing all requirements documents Updating almost all test cases and test scenarios
Total delay – 6 monthsAdditional cost – 30%
What is the solution?
What can you do?
Get involved in requirements review and acceptance
QA signoff should be the „must have”
What can you do?
Improve the proces
Ask analysts for a presentation explaining the goals and vision of the product
What can you do?
Check the product/business in a real life
Apply field observation/interviews Get familiar with similar products Wath the users
What can you do?
Collaborate and cooperate
Work with the business representatives, users, analysts to clarify requirements, goals of the product and its application
Apply some agile practices: Demo Inspect and adapt
What can you do?
Collaborate and cooperate
Ask business representatives, users, analysts to review your test cases Are they complete? Are they right? Do they cover risks?
What can you do?
Read
ISTQB syllabi do not help. They explain the test proces and techniques only.Sorry guys!
Read: Domain standards Business proces documentation Business publications Documentation of similar products Regulations
What can you do?
Don’t be afraid to ask
There's no such thing as a stupid question
The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledgeThomas Berger
Why should you do it?
Benefits for the organization: Increased understanding of the project goals and customer’s expectation
Specialized test personnel
Focusing on development of the right
product
Lean testing. Better test planing. No
waste!
Support for change impact analysis
Lowering project risk –
you are building the right product
Customer satisfaction
Increased realibility of
the IT company as a solution provider
Why should you do it?
Benefits for you: Self-development Increased reliability of your professional judgement Expertise Ability to not only verify the product, but to validate it as well
Thank you!
Who does not agree?