1.
A New Model for Testing
@paul_gerrard
Paul Gerrard
paul@gerrardconsulting.com
gerrardconsulting.com
Programme Chair 2014

2.
Helping clients transform their testing through
INNOVATION, COACHING and LEADERSHIP
Our CLIENTS
– Want to be agile rather than follow Agile dogma
– Have a pragmatic approach and are focused on delivery
– Want a solution that fits, not a badly fitting suit.

3.
Typical tester job spec? (May 2014)
• Skills & Requirements
– Thorough C# knowledge including Linq
– Good .Net experience including charting and winforms
applications.
– Experience building and maintaining automated test systems
– Ability to interact with the developers to anticipate future
needs
– Ability to influence to ensure good test procedures are
developed and implemented
• Desirable Skills
– Some knowledge of Java for mobile testing
– An interest in photography.

4.
Agenda
• Pressure to Change
• Three Innovations
• Where is this Leading?
• A New Model forTesting
• Consequences
• Shift-Left is More Important than Agile

5.
What's happening?
• Stampede to mobile computing
• Big Data
• Internet of (Every)Thing, Pervasive Computing
• Continuous Delivery, DevOps
• (Test) Analytics, Data-Driven Development
• Shift-left, embedded testers, no test team
• Did you really think Agile was the last word?

6.
Three Innovations That
Are Driving Change
Being agile
Shift Left
Analytics

7.
#1
Agile doesn’t work
but being agile might
Agile is no longer innovative.
Challenging Agile and being agile
might be
Is continuous delivery for you?

8.
Agile doesn’t work?
• It works for some
• But many organisations have difficulties
• Mostly a cultural problem
– Requirements take months to elicit and agree
– Complex stakeholder relationships
– Stakeholders with ‘all the knowledge’ can’t be
spared to be the on-site customer/product owner
– Lack of confidence => big system/acceptance tests
• We are Agile but ...

9.
Pragmatism rules (again)
• Pragmatic companies use the things that work
and discard those that don’t
• Let's be honest: Most are doing some form of
hybrid approach:
– Chaotic interfaces between Agile teams and
structured businesses
– TDD, BDD,ATDD, SBE today…
– Continuous Delivery, DevOps… tomorrow?

10.
#2
Shift Left
Developers in test?
Testers in development?
Testing (testers?) everywhere

11.
TestingBDD/Test-Driven)
Trusted
Requirements +
Stories
Shift left (redistributed testing)
Functional
Requirements
Build (+little testing) but
lots of rework
Testing (lots of
checking + bugs)
Trusted
Requirements +
Stories
Testing
SAVED
TIME
BDD/Test-Driven
Who is going to do all this?
BAs, Developers or Testers?

12.
From traditional delivery…
… to Continuous Delivery

13.
Deployment into
Production is not the
Same as ‘Going Live’
Release to production and test
environments on-demand
Go Live weekly/monthly/quarterly…

14.
#3
Test Analytics
Analytics from production
Analytics from test
An opportunity for testing

15.
Analysis Insight Decision
Development
and Testing
Production
Testing
IntroducingTest Analytics
“IntroducingTest Analytics”, Paul Gerrard:
http://gerrardconsulting.com/index.php?q=node/630
Julian Harty, "Symbiotic Relationships betweenTesting and SMAC":
http://blog.bettersoftwaretesting.com/2013/07/symbiotic-relationships-between-
testing-and-social-mobile-analytics-cloud-computing/
“The capture, integration and analysis of test and
production monitoring data to inform business and
software development decision-making”.

16.
Data silos for test analytics
(an illustration)
Stakeholder Requirements Assurance (Production)
Application
Monitoring
Production
Environment
Monitoring
 Stakeholders
 Business Goals
and measures
 Stakeholder
Involvement/
Engagement
 Risk
 Requirements
 Stories/Feature
Descriptions
 Glossary of terms
andTerm Usage
 Processes
 Process Paths
(Workflows)
 ManualTests
 GeneratedTest
Code (unit,
integration,
system level)
 Application
Instrumentation
 AutomatedTest
Execution History
 Test Status
 Feature Code
Change History
 Application
Process Flows
 User Accesses/
Activities
 Feature Calls,
Response times
 Feature use cases
(data usage)
 Application
Alerts/Failures
 Database Accesses
 Database Content
 Production
failures
 System assets
 Resource Usage
Log
 Performance data
 System Events
 System Alerts/
Failures/Incidents
 Outages

17.
Where is this leading?
If I knew that, I wouldn't be here...

18.
Three development patterns
Structured
Agile Continuous
Autonomous

19.
There aren't three
patterns
There are many

20.
From high process to DIY process
• In the past, high process was seen to be the
technical solution to the software problem
• But technical solutions cannot solve human
problems
• Agile promised flexibility, but a lot of Agile is
really 'high process-in-the-small'
• True agility means a team can adapt or select
its process on-the-fly.

21.
The old ways won't
work in the future
We need a New Model ofTesting
(free from logistics)

22.
A New Model for
Testing
Don't throw stones.Yet.
I'm working on a refined version (with others).
Want to help/review?

23.
Forget Logistics
(for the time being)
Document or not?
Agile v waterfall?
Planned v exploratory?
This technology v that technology?

24.
ALLTesting is
Exploratory
We explore sources of knowledge ...
... to build test models ...
... that inform our testing.

25.
AllTesting is Based on
Models

26.
Examples of models

27.
Models are innate, essential, human

28.
Judgement, exploring and testing
Testing
(the system)
Our model(s) are adequate
Our model(s) are not adequate
Exploring
(sources)
Judgement
Creates test
models
Uses test
models
We explore sources of knowledge to build test models that inform our testing
BTW – Do Developers explore the same way? I think so.

29.
Exploration process
ExplorationDefinitions
specs/stories
Oracles
Sources
Design
Models
Test
Models
Enquiring
Challenging
Sources:
People, documents,
experience, system under test
Modelling
Test Models:
Can be documented
or mental models
Predicting
System
under test

30.
Testing process
Testing
System
Under Test
Refining
Informing Applying
Interpreting
Test
Models
Revise the
System
More exploring Reporting

31.
New Model Testing
29 page paper: http://dev.sp.qa/download/newModel

32.
Some Consequences

33.
Do developers and
testers think the same
way?
Similar processes, not thinking the same
Easier to embed testers in development
Developer testing will improve

34.
Covers functional and
non-functional testing?
Ignoring logistics means we can have
the same foundational process for
ALL testing
(I think)

35.
Relation to
TDD and BDD?
TDD is not testing
BDD is modelling using stories

36.
Testing v Checking?
I submit that a Check is "a test that
can be applied by a human or tool"
But only humans can interpret

37.
Test automation from a
different perspective
Automation uses different test models
Is that why automation efforts fail so often?

38.
DeveloperTesting
The model works (for me)

39.
Capabilities
Enquiring, Modelling, Predicting, Challenging
Informing,Applying, Interpreting, Refining
Reporting and Logging

40.
• Analysis, enquiry and elicitation
• Modelling
• Creation of custom models, using
heuristics, guesses, brainstorming,
ideation, creative thinking
• Custom test design techniques
• Comparison of models, value, advantages,
disadvantages, compromises
• Identification, validation and use of
oracles
• Predicate logic and proof
• Hypothesis and inference
• Socratic method
• Rapid Review and Inspection techniques
• Test case design
• Test models and the meaning of coverage
• Testing as controlled experiment
• Observation, Note taking, recording
A very different skillset
• Basic data analysis and statistics
• Decision-making with incomplete data
• Computer forensics
• Fault tree analysis
• Failure diagnosis
• Bug advocacy, triage processes and
negotiation
• Meaningful software and test metrics
• Visual presentation of data
• Reporting and presentation skills
• Understanding stakeholders
• Test analytics
• Risk management, risk-based testing and
decision-making
• Critical Thinking
• Interpersonal skills
• Dealing with uncertainty/fallibility

41.
Shift-Left is More
Important than Agile

42.
Developers write code;
testers test because
developers can’t
No they don’t

43.
Goal: End Manual
Feature Checking
Let the tools do it and
free people to do testing please!

44.
Testing doesn’t just
apply to existing
software, at the end
We test systems, not software.
We test early, we test often but it
might not be called testing

45.
Testers Need to Learn
How to Code
Some, perhaps many will have to

46.
Testing is about
measuring achievement,
not quality
Align systems delivery with project
goals and risks and you’ve got a seat
on the board

47.
Testers don’t own
testing anymore
Be aTestMaster
"Assurance through the lifecycle"

48.
New Model Testing
changes what testers &
developers need to
learn
Roles of developers/testers become blurred
Perhaps they are not different disciplines after all?
Why have a tester certification?

49.
The phase after
development is
REWORK, not Testing
Testing must align with development,
not compete with it or rescue it

50.
A New Model for Testing
http://dev.sp.qa/download/newModel
@paul_gerrard
Paul Gerrard
paul@gerrardconsulting.com
gerrardconsulting.com
Programme Chair 2014