AST Lean Coffee

I attended another Lean Coffee online with the Association for Software Testing this morning. Here's a few aggregated notes from the conversation.

Teaching Developers About Testing

There's a lot of debate in the community about this, with two extreme perspectives.
Anybody can test and we don't need specialised testers.
Nobody except specialists can test.
There is huge value in teaching developers about testing.
Anyone who is involved in building software should be involved in testing software.
We've been experimenting with ensemble testing.
We started with regular session every two weeks, bringing a task for testing from a customer perspective.
The testers helped prepare for the session (areas to cover, environments, data, etc).
The session included members of the quality group and the teams.
It evolved into various parts of the organisation using this approach for exploratory testing.
Is "teaching developers about testing" a good framing for the concern here?
How would we feel if it was flipped and developers were saying "we need to teach testers about coding"?
Would we be annoyed?
The topic was deliberately a bit provocative!
I've learned about testing from developers.
This is not about imposing on people.
I have run ensemble testing with medical doctors for example.
We learn together about how they test, with me facilitating not teaching
Definitely a learning session.
The question should be "how do we (as a group) learn more about testing"?

A Book, Blog, or Podcast that Inspired You Recently

Brian Marick's Oddly Influenced podcast. I've listened to every episode twice, back-to-back.
Anne-Marie Charrett's blog and teachings
Applying testing skills to learn what's needed day-to-day to provide value.
Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI by Toby Walsh
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
Full-Stack Testing by Gayathri Mohan
96 Visualization Examples: How Great Teams Visualize Their Work by Jimmy Janlén
Decision-Making Principles & Practices by Jimmy Janlén
How to Observe Software Systems by Jerry Weinberg
The Great British Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis
Elisabeth Hendrickson's Facilitation workshop

How Can a Test Team Show Their Value?

I'm looking for new ideas for a team I'm working with.
Everyone's aware that more testers are required
... but there's no budget until value is shown.
The testers are currently fire-fighting, and have stalled initiatives on automation.
The team is in a transition to Agile, but still testing at the end.
Who thinks there isn't sufficient value? How do they perceive it?
The same challenges for me.
I started to invite stakeholders to strategy/risk sessions, asking them for review.
There was a "wow"-moment when they saw our mindmaps
... and particularly the wide-ranging impact of conceptually small changes.
They have started to ask for estimations for testing, to get a more realistic timeline.
A simple first step for the team migth be some kind of sharing, open sessions.
We got a place in quarterly review meetings where we can be visible and report what's happening in the product.
We also used people's successes to raise the profile of quality and testing.
We called the presentations "Qualiwood"!
I find myself begging people to pay attention? I really want them to care about testing and quality.
I have done ORSC workshops designed to help people understand other people's roles better.
Teams need to be able to have civil conversations.
A big realisation for me last year: we forget that we're experts in testing.
We have huge depth of knowledge but the people we talk to typically do not.
Like when coaching, we might have to start at a low level, with the very basics.
Assert to the business that the status quo is not what the testers are there for.
Find a way to force a change of tester responsibilities away from fire-fighting.
Find a way for others to feel the pain of "test debt".
Start less, finish more.
Alan Richardson was talking about this on his podcast.

Image: Anne-Marie Charrett

Comments

David Baldwin said…

"They have started to ask for estimations for testing, to get a more realistic timeline."
Asking for an estimate for testing is like asking how long is the coastline of the UK: it depends how closely you look!

September 29, 2022 at 3:40 PM

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