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Organizer: imbus AG www.qs-tag.de

Business awareness of testers and the quality of testing Karolina ZmitrowiczQuale Magazine

Soft skills in testing

Instead of agenda

What do you need to be a good tester?

To be a good tester

You need to know the discipline Knowledge of development process Knowledge of testing proces Practical knowledge about test techniques Experience in using tools supporting testing

Anything else?

To be a good tester

Your role can be considered as a bridge between the business and the development

You work with people: Analysts Developers Customers End users

You work with people representing different background, knowledge, sometimes culture

To be a good tester

Where are you on this picture?

To be a good tester

What else do you need? Processes, techniques and tools are not enough Working with people requires special skills

Therefore, the next step to be a good tester is gathering soft skills: Communication Negotiation Patience Understanding

To be a good tester

Test proces, techniques, tools + soft skills = ?

It is still not enough

You are responsible for providing objective information about the test object.

To be able to do it, you need to understand the object.

Business awareness of testers and the quality of testing

Why this topic?

Consider the following „typical” requirements

I want a cat.The cat should have 4 legs, 2 eyes and 2

ears.The cat should be provided in 2 weeks

Why this topic?

What features would you test for?Why do you want to test it like that?

Why this topic?

What design based on these requirements could development offer?

There are many options like:

Why this topic?

Fortunatelly, we have business analysts!

The cat after detailed requirements analysis:

Why this topic?

Coming back to our requirments…The cat after development and some reworks coming from your

feedback…

Why this topic?

Now, let’s assume that the customer has specific requirements and wanted a cat like this…

It seems you didn’t build the right product…

So? Is it a problem?Actually it is…

Why this topic?

Gaps in the proces resulted in the cost of:

Conclusion

How many of you are „cat experts”?

• Collect requirements• Validate requirements• Design the right product• Test for the right product

You need to know the „domain” to be able to

The only thing more expensive than writing software is writing bad softwareDouglas Adams

Business knowledge and testing

Your responsibility as a tester is not only to simply execute test cases

You also design tests and plan their execution

Because of this, you need to understand what are you going to test:• You need to understand requirements• You need to „see” the business context of the system and the whole project• You need to understand the purpose of the products and its impact on testing

Ok, you may say – requirements should clearly say what to test

Business knowledge and testing

The problem is: The requirements are often poorly documented The requirements are often missing The requirements are often inconsistent

The second problem is that to claim requirements as not good, you must know the business area

In other case, how can you know that you are testing „the right cat”?

The system should be usable

The system should be fast

Let me tell you a story

Once upon a time…

There was a test team in charge of testing a banking application

The problem was they had no idea about banking…

Let me tell you a story

Their internal testing was very successful… no serious bugs!!

Then they came to the customer … and things changed

Let me tell you a story

Results:Branch and till balancing not working correctly Branch reporting not working correctlyDevices not working as supposedTransactions taking too longBusiness rules… what business rules???

Should it balance??

Since when?!

Oh… does it matter?

It looks different than the

simulators….

Let me tell you a story

Solution:Involving the customer in testing Working close with business analysts from the

bank to clarify requirementsDetailing all requirements documents Updating almost all test cases and test scenarios

Total delay – 6 monthsAdditional cost – 30%

What is the solution?

What can you do?

Get involved in requirements review and acceptance

QA signoff should be the „must have”

What can you do?

Improve the proces

Ask analysts for a presentation explaining the goals and vision of the product

What can you do?

Check the product/business in a real life

Apply field observation/interviews Get familiar with similar products Wath the users

What can you do?

Collaborate and cooperate

Work with the business representatives, users, analysts to clarify requirements, goals of the product and its application

Apply some agile practices: Demo Inspect and adapt

What can you do?

Collaborate and cooperate

Ask business representatives, users, analysts to review your test cases Are they complete? Are they right? Do they cover risks?

What can you do?

Read

ISTQB syllabi do not help. They explain the test proces and techniques only.Sorry guys!

Read: Domain standards Business proces documentation Business publications Documentation of similar products Regulations

What can you do?

Don’t be afraid to ask

There's no such thing as a stupid question

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledgeThomas Berger

Why should you do it?

Benefits for the organization: Increased understanding of the project goals and customer’s expectation

Specialized test personnel

Focusing on development of the right

product

Lean testing. Better test planing. No

waste!

Support for change impact analysis

Lowering project risk –

you are building the right product

Customer satisfaction

Increased realibility of

the IT company as a solution provider

Why should you do it?

Benefits for you: Self-development Increased reliability of your professional judgement Expertise Ability to not only verify the product, but to validate it as well

Thank you!

Who does not agree?