Testing in Agile Development

Quang Tran
Lecturer, Centre of Technology
Agenda
Agile Development Model

“An iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to

software development which is performed in a highly
collaborative manner by self-organizing teams within
an effective governance framework, with "just enough"
ceremony that produces high quality software in a cost
effective and timely manner which meets the
changing needs of its stakeholders.”
Scott Ambler

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Agile Manifesto

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
While there is value in the items on the right, agile model
values the items on the left more
eXtreme Programming
Scrum
Main Characteristics of Agile Development

• Iterative, incremental, and adaptive

• Short iterations (weeks not months)
• Highly collaborative (co-location works best)
• Quick feedbacks from customers
• Regularly deliver business values through working
software

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Agile Testing

Agile testing STILL covers common testing activities:

• Validation
–Unit/Component testing
–Integration testing
–System testing
–Acceptance testing
• Verification
–Walkthrough
–Buddy check
–Review/Inspection
But … each activity is performed in different fashion

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Agile Testing Strategies & Approaches

• Whole-team testing for most (if not all) testing activities

–unit testing, functional testing, acceptance testing, etc.
• Independent test team for complex testing activities
–usability testing, security testing, performance testing, end-
of-lifecycle testing, etc.
–independent tester/developer = 15:1 or 20:1 (instead of 3:1
or 1:1 in traditional testing)
• Acceptance tests created with customers

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Agile Testing Strategies & Approaches

• Test-driven development (TDD)

–Tests created before coding

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Agile Testing Strategies & Approaches

• Behavior-driven development (BDD)

–Extension of TDD
–Tests created based on expected behaviors written in
plain text
• Continuous integration and continuous deployment
–How’s about integration testing?
• Automated testing
–To allow short iterations
–Any other benefits?

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Agile Testing Best Practices

• Pair testing
• Reviews/Inspections
• Refactoring
• Shared issue tracking system to manage requirements,
tasks and bugs
• Open source tools for developers and commercial tools (if
needed) for independent testers
• Invest in testing hardware, virtualization and test-lab
management tools

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Agile Testing Best Practices

• Conversational test creation

• Coaching tests
• Providing test interfaces
• Exploratory learning

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Agile Testing Tools

• Unit testing: JUnit, NUnit, xUnit

• Functional testing: Selenium, WebDriver, HttpUnit,
HtmlUnit, WebUnit, Puffin, Cucumber, RSpec, NSpec,
JBehave, TestComplete, Quick Test Professional,
SilkTest
• Performance testing: JMeter, LoadRunner, SilkPerformer,
Grinder, TestMaker, OpenSTA, Visual Studio Load Test
• Continuous integration and deployment: Maven, Ant,
CruiseControl, Hudson, Capistrano, Team Foundation
Server, shell scripts

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References

• Ambler, S, Agile Testing and Quality Strategies: Discipline over Rhetoric,

viewed 15 July 2010, <http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/agileTesting.html>
• Cockburn, A and Highsmith, J 2007, Agile Software Development, 2nd edn,
Pearson Education Inc., Boston, USA.

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