Remi Hansen, PROMIS AS

Test Strategies Are 90% Waste

www.eurostarconferences.com

@esconfs#esconfs

Me and my message

Anti-patterns

Recommendations

Photo (Flickr): Spiroll

Senior PM in PROMIS, a leading provider of agile project and test management services in Norway (www.promis.no)

20+ years in IT Consulting business ◦ Primarily Project Manager and Business Consultant

on strategic projects in both private and public sector

Presenter on local and international conferences

B.Sc. in SW Engineering, M. Sc. in Industrial Economics

Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2 Practitioner, IT Project Professional (ITPP), CSPO, ISTQB Foundation and ITIL

no.linkedin.com/in/remihansen/

Q UAL I F Y

1. Dare to break the test strategy anti-patterns

2. Test strategies are for communication – not for documentation

3. You will receive a limited amount of management attention –use it wisely - to gain the mandate you need to do your job effectively

Foto (Flickr):Jordan McCullough

Photo (Flickr):thegift73

An anti-pattern is a pattern used in social or business operations or software engineering that may be commonly used but is ineffective and/or counterproductive in practice

Can you think of anytest strategy anti-patterns?

Use a template based on an international standard- make sure to fill in something in every section

Write as if the document exists without any context at all

Write as if the reader has never heard of the concept of testing

Do not communicate any of the contentuntil the document is complete, in perfect condition

and formally approved

Volume = Quality

Write for the test management community– Stick strictly to the test vocabulary!

Include a snapshot of the risk,

to have it declared once and for all

Write excessively about what the SW developers should do in their unit tests

Additional anti-patterns?

If you follow these anti-patterns you should keep occupied for a long time

producing an impeccable documentof at least 50 pages

- With close to zero valuebecause nobody can endure reading it

- And if anybody does read itit’s certainly not the ones who should read it

Photo (Flickr):thegift73

Build support from management for the most important choices, which gives you a clear boundaries to manage within

Photo (Flickr):Michele M.F.

Be very clear on the distinction between

the strategy = what you must have management backing for

and

the plan = what you as a test professional and manager will

take responsibility for and management shouldn’t really worry too much about management by exception

Present the strategy incrementally – build consensus around the essential choices before moving on to more detailed issues

Presentation is more effective than documents

Create discussions and common conclusions

Do we need the traditional test strategy document?

Put forward the important choices in an understandable way ◦ Don’t let the important drown in details◦ Don’t make the readers relate to issues they need not

worry about – that will only dilute the message◦ Don’t waste space and attention on matters covered

elsewhere

The document has no value in itself– it’s the shared understanding and direction it gives that creates value

Don’t underestimate the level of test knowledge out there

A decision maker without test knowledge will not become knowledgeable even if you write a lot of details – don’t write a textbook on test management!

What would you includeif you were to write a test strategy

on five slides?

Photo (Flickr):Captain Tenneal

Which tests will we perform?

When (in what phases) do we test?

Who (what roles) will perform the tests?

In which environments will we test?

What test techniques are required?

What are the test objects?

What are the acceptance criteria?

What tools will we use?

What documentation is needed?

What metrics do we need?

Distinguish clearly betweenTest strategy – the overall policies, guidelines and priorities that

Project Management and Steering Committee must support (contract between project management and TM)and

Test plans – everything you as a Test Manager can take responsibility for yourself

Which tests will we perform?

When (in what phases) do we test?

Who (what roles) will perform the tests?

In which environments will we test?

What test techniques are required?

What are the test objects?

What are the acceptance criteria?

What tools will we use?

What documentation is needed?

What metrics do we need?

Tabular / graphics presentation

Do we need this inthe strategy? Consider moving to test plan

What’s missing?

Test objectives / Business risk assessment

Strategy for test automation

Clarifications on scope, ambition and responsibility for more «peripheral» tests, like non-functional test incl. performance tests, regression tests, operational tests, quality assurance of documentation and training, usability tests, static testing, code quality, etc.

Resource requirements – type and amount

What you should remember

1. Dare to break the test strategy anti-patterns

2. Test strategies are for communication

– not for documentation

3. You will receive a limited amount of management attention

– use it wisely - to gain the mandate you need to do your job effectively

Photo (Flickr):ILhan Gendron

Emancipate yourself from bloated test strategies!

Photo (Flickr):Jake Gagne

Photo (Flickr):Horia Varlan

Reachable on remi.hansen@promis.no