before you test your system, test your assumptions

T19 Test Management

10/16/2014 3:00:00 PM

Before You Test Your System, Test Your Assumptions

Presented by:

Aaron Sanders

Agile Coach

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

Aaron Sanders

Agile Coach Through training and coaching, Aaron Sanders helps organizations design collaborative systems. Aaron owes the effectiveness of his work to practice spanning more than two decades in technological and interpersonal disciplines. He believes that his work as a Certified Scrum Trainer introduces all the initial concepts, while the full impact on the learners is usually felt days later. Coaching allows him to sense when a situation requires attention and leads to faster concept integration. Since there’s always room for improvement, Aaron finds that pairing with others helps him improve his skills and increase the customer’s benefit. Check out Aaron’s work at aaron.sanders.name.

B E F O R E Y O U T E S T Y O U R S Y S T E M , T E S T Y O U R A S S U M P T I O N S A A R O N S A N D E R S , A G I L E C O A C H T W I T T E R : @ _ A A R O N _ S A N D E R S

R E V I E W I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S O F T E N L E A D S T O B E L I E V I N G W E H A V E T H E S A M E U N D E R S T A N D I N G

V I S U A L I Z I N G I N F O R M A T I O N A L L O W S U S T O D E T E C T I N C O N S I S T E N C I E S I N U N D E R S T A N D I N G

W E A C H I E V E T A C I T K N O W L E D G E U S I N G D I S C U S S I O N A N D F E E D B A C K T O C O - C R E A T E B E T T E R M O D E L S

U S I N G T H A T B E T T E R M O D E L W E E F F E C T I V E L Y W O R K T O G E T H E R T O W A R D S T H E S A M E O B J E C T I V E

D I S T R I B U T I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S L E A D S T O A N I N S U F F I C I E N T U N D E R S T A N D I N G O F T H E S Y S T E M

T O B U I L D S H A R E D U N D E R S T A N D I N G S K E T C H A N D R E C O R D O N W A L L S A N D W H I T E B O A R D S

W O R D S A N D P I C T U R E S H E L P E V E R Y O N E B U I L D S H A R E D U N D E R S T A N D I N G

C O L L A B O R A T I V E W O R K S H O P S I N V O L V E S T A K E H O L D E R S , U S E R S , A N D T H E D E L I V E R Y T E A M

M O D E L I N G W O R K S H O P S F O L L O W A S I M P L E F L O W

Introduce the objective of the workshop

1. Get information out of minds and on to walls 2. Organize the information into similar groups 3. Distill the information and find patterns 4. Find focus to engage in the best work Summarize and record what  you’ve  learned

L E A N A N D T H E D E S I G N O F B U S I N E S S

• Every decision you make about your offering is a design decision.

• Every design decision is an hypothesis.

• Declare your assumptions and test them.

• Evaluate your results ruthlessly, and be prepared to change course.

D E C L A R E Y O U R A S S U M P T I O N S

What assumptions do you have?

…about  your  customers?

…that  if  proven  false,  will  cause  you  to  fail?

In other words: what do you need to know in order to move forward successfully?

T Y P I C A L P R O D U C T A S S U M P T I O N S . . .

� Who is the user? Who is the customer?

� Where does our product fit in their work or life?

� What problems does our product solve?

� When and how is our product used?

� What features are important?

� How should our product look and behave?

T Y P I C A L B U S I N E S S A S S U M P T I O N S

� How will we acquire customers?

� How will we make money?

� Who are our competitors?

� What’s  our  differentiator?

� What’s  our  biggest  risk?

� How do we expect to solve it?

H Y P O T H E S I S S T A T E M E N T

We believe that

[doing this]

for [these people]

will achieve [this outcome].

We’ll  know  this  is  true  when  we  see  

[this market feedback].

A P P L Y D E S I G N T H I N K I N G

T H I S

Source: "Facilitator's Guide To Participatory Decision-Making, by Sam Kaner and others. .

V A L U E O V E R V O L U M E

M O D E L O U T O P P O R T U N I T I E S

C R E A T E E M P A T H Y M A P S

Do?

C O N D U C T I N T E R V I E W S

S T O R Y M A P O U T U S E R J O U R N E Y S

Sequence of events

sub-tasks, alternatives, variations and details

B U I L D S T O R Y M A P S I N S M A L L C O L L A B O R A T I V E G R O U P S

P R I O R I T I Z E & S T R I P E T H E M A P B Y O U T C O M E

E N G A G E T H E W H O L E T E A M I N A D E S I G N S T U D I O

S T A R T B Y S K E T C H I N G I N D E P E N D E N T L Y

S H A R E R E S U L T S O N E - B Y - O N E

F I N D T H E B E S T I D E A S ( N O T T H E B E S T A R T I S T )

T E S T H Y P O T H E S E S W I T H P R O T O T Y P E S

F I E L D - A N D L A B - T E S T P R O T O T Y P E S

Prototype  like  you  know  you’re  right. Test  like  you  know  you’re  wrong.

R E L E A S I N G V A L U A B L E S O F T W A R E F O R T H E U S E R I S A W I C K E D P R O B L E M

C O N T I N U I N G W O R K O N T H E M A P

D I S C U S S I O N S D R I V E O U T M O R E D E T A I L S , V A L I D A T E , A N D B U I L D S H A R E D U N D E R S T A N D I N G

V A L I D A T E D L E A R N I N G C Y C L E

S H O W W E A T H E R O N T H E W A Y T O T H E A I R P O R T F O R T H E B U S I N E S S T R A V E L E R

A T T R A C T M I L L E N I A L S W I T H A N A P P I N O R D E R T O C H E C K I N A N D O U T O F H O T E L S W I T H T H E P H O N E

A L L O W U S E R S T O S E A R C H T H I R D P A R T Y S I T E S W H I C H W I L L T A K E T H E M T O O U R P A Y M E N T F L O W

A T T R A C T O U R N E W S P A P E R S U B S C R I B E R S W I T H A N I P A D A P P A N D A S I M I L A R P A I D S U B S C R I P T I O N M O D E L

Q U E S T I O N S ?

T H A N K Y O U ! T W I T T E R : @ _ A A R O N _ S A N D E R S