Sin #4: Ignoring Test Failures
Strong agile teams tend to have a lot of automated tests that run multiple times per day via continuous integration. All that effort might be for naught if you don‘t do anything when one of those tests fails! Pay your penance, as suggested below. ―Stop the line‖ when tests fail The Definition of Done for backlog items includes testing Stakeholders participate in testing Invest in robust automated tests Incentives for clean check-ins. A little peer pressure or friendly competition can help establish a culture where clean check-ins and passing tests are the expectation of everyone.
Sin #3: Lack of Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Integration (CI)
TDD and CI are core practices from Extreme Programing and agile teams will quickly hit a brick wall without them. Here are some ways for a team to get on the path toward righteousness.
Achieve an explicit team commitment to do TDD and CI
Invest in legacy test automation
Make automated tests robust
Practice ATDD and BDD
Keep metrics on important quality indicators and monitor trends; use these metrics to demonstrate ROI on TDD and CI. Typical measures include rate of CI build failures, test coverage, manual effort level per test cycle, escaped defect counts, and customer satisfaction.
Prioritize test automation efforts to maximize ROI
Stakeholders participate in testing
―Stop the line‖ when tests fail
Include testing in release planning
INVEST in user stories; they should meet the INVEST criteria. Make them small and testable.
www.teatimewithtesters.com
April 2011|20