podcast

Your Mileage Will Vary

jo2sn Enterprise IT, Softwaretesting , ,

Looking at all the podcast, conference and community chatter you could get the impression that everyone else’s projects always follows the latest trends and hottest principles. That everything is perfect, and everything is a success – and that all new ideas are working right off the bat.

First Try… ish

It almost sounds as if testing has to be in a specific way, and that what you experience is wrong or less worthy. That there are no failures, no scrum-fall projects or old legacy systems. It sounds like everything runs smoothly on an up-to-date CI/CD K8 technology stack with all the bells and whistles.

Hmm.. no.

Don’t worry, listen to the “Guilty tester podcast”

Every single project/company/context is both it’s own mess and it’s own best. There is a huge difference between all the worlds companies and all the countries traditions around IT. Sure, it may happen – let me tell you the world of IT projects is a weird place, and that’s OK. So take all the stories of successes with the added American car commercial catch phrase goes “your mileage may vary” [YMMV] or as we tend to say coming from a Context Driven point of view “It depends“.

It depends on your context if modern testing is a thing for you, it might work in an enterprise setting of commercial standard systems. Using Robot Desktop automation in testing might work better in that setting, but then again it will probably not be a good fit in your average software development project. In a context of developing software business-to-consumer the web features is more importation than in an enterprise setting. And round and round the practices and approaches goes and goes…

If you look a little beyond the borders of your own project you will see similarities to others doing the same, but also the diversity in approaches, successes and failures. You are not doing all of it wrong.

You are not doing it wrong

– you’r mileage is just different.

With A Little Help From New Friends

jo2sn Enterprise IT, Softwaretesting , , , ,

Do you ever feel guilty for not meeting the standards set by others in the Software Testing community? You’re in the right place then.

In this episode I talk to Dave (@theguiltytester). We discuss traditions, open questions and how to work within contracts which are specifically requesting traditional test practices based on large numbers of test cases. 

Listen and read all about it here: http://theguiltytester.libsyn.com/the-guilty-tester-episode-4-jesper-ottosen-with-a-little-help-from-new-friends 

Some of the blog posts mentioned are: 

New friends - the subject matter experts of all trades
New friends – the subject matter experts of all trades

Could Modern Testing work in the enterprise

jo2sn Enterprise IT, Softwaretesting , , , , ,

So far I have mostly thought that “Modern Testing” of the A/B testing podcast would never work in an enterprise context. But it seems some tools and existing approaches in the enterprises already fits well with the ideas of the concept. 

The enterprise is all the privately owned companies that usually manufacture (non-IT) things –  for either the consumer or other businesses. The enterprise sell and produce tangible products like windmills, power tools, dairy consumer products etc. The interest with regards to IT for the enterprise is that it just works, and supports business processes around order setup, order tracking and invoicing – and many other moving parts.

While I have heard of some organisations that have successfully implemented some agile and SaFe methods (in banking), the enterprise have a hard time to change mode of operations, as it usually comes down to actual production of things, logistics and hierarchies of command-and-control … and culture, most of all culture.

 

@  via @HelenLisowski

 

Some enterprises change towards being learning organisations, but still treat their IT in general as low-value and an annoying cost. It seems the IT departments and IT contractors have a challenge in talking about what they do to achieve the right quality for the businesses….

 

 

Que: The Modern testing mission on “Accelerate the achievement of Shippable Quality”. While MT is mostly a concept around transition of testing activities, it seems the concept applies to IT delivery teams in general. MT has 7 principles and some of these are:

5. We believe that the customer is the only one capable to judge and evaluate the quality of our product

Most enterprise projects I know off around implementing SAP, MS dynamics 365, EPIC hospital solutions etc, have a large reliance on end-user testing and UAT. Often there is no professional testers involved, as the best tester is the business experts themselves. Interestingly the principle #5 fit’s well with existing practices from the UAT space.

Another interesting MT principle is #6 around data analysis of actual customer usage. This requires some totally different tooling for the tester, than previously generally available (…besides shifting-right perhaps…).

6. We use data extensively to deeply understand customer usage and then close the gaps between product hypotheses and business impact.

Yet recently I was investigating Panaya Autonomous Testing for SAP. One thing I realized is that what the tool collects real user usage of SAP and then provides the ability to balance the testing activities based on that analysis. It is interesting to see a commercial test management product for the enterprises following new trends like the “modern tester”.

While it’s interesting how some of the concepts of modern testing are reflected in testing in the enterprise – and vise versa –  the challenge remains for both the tools and concepts to be applied and accepted in more organisations. 

It might not fit everywhere, but it might be a good fit in more places than you think it would. 

 

Publications and Presentations

jo2sn Softwaretesting , , , , , ,

Presentations, Webinars & Podcasts

Other publications

  • 21st Century Skills For Testers [Collection by Kramer & Ayadi, jan 2021]: apply the 21st-century skills: critical thinking, communication,  collaboration, and creativity.
  • Test Automation for Software-as-a-Service Solutions [Synapse QA SuperReads, Jan 2021]: New tools are breaking ground in this space and have some clear benefits, yet also have to apply some good-old automation practices. https://synapse-qa.com/2021/01/13/automation-for-saas/
  • Could Modern Testing Work in The Enterprise [Guest blog for Panaya, May 2018] So far I have mostly thought that “Modern Testing” of the A/B testing podcast would never work in an enterprise context. But it seems some tools and existing approaches in the enterprises already fits well with the ideas of the concept. http://www.panaya.com/blog/testing/could-modern-testing-work-in-the-enterprise/
  • DevOps is cool, but get involved in OpsDev for Test Environment Management too! [Guest blog post for Plutora, Oct 2017] The hyped mnemonic “DevOps” is equally true the other way around: OpsDev http://www.plutora.com/blog/opsdev-test-environments-management
  • Testing during Transition: Test Criteria for Outsourced Software [Sticky Minds by TechWell, May 2017] In the world of IT outsourcing, it is not uncommon for a company to have its applications and infrastructure developed or maintained by others. How would you design acceptance criteria of a transition trial so that it is testable and clearly communicated? https://www.stickyminds.com/article/testing-during-transition-test-criteria-outsourced-software
  • Using Business Decisions to Drive Your Testing Coverage [Sticky Minds by TechWell, November 2014] In a business setting, software testers have a great challenge: to articulate how they support the business lines. One way to approach this is by addressing the business decisions—and there are plenty around. Use them to drive your testing activities and increase the business decisions being covered by testing. http://www.stickyminds.com/article/using-business-decisions-drive-your-testing-coverage 
  • The answer is: Why – because the answer depends on context.[The Testing Circus,vol.6 2.ed February 2015]: When asked about testing approaches, the options are so plentiful, that the reply is often “It depends” – and followed by a range of elaborations. But in our eager to reply, we forget to listen. http://www.testingcircus.com/february-2015/
  • The Testcases Template Trick – Getting One Testcase To Call Another [EuroStar TestHuddle, Nov 2014]: When doing test analysis I often find that we need to do test some customer feature over and over again for a range of combinations. I recently found myself able to redo a trick I learned a long time ago https://huddle.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/the-testcases-template-trick/

Articles for The Ministry of Testing, 2011+

  1. Robot Process Automation As A Power Tool For Testing [Ministry of Testing Dojo, Mar 2018]: While there are other power tools for web and API testing, the RPA tools are a class of their own, as RPA tools allow for codeless automation macros on the desktop. RPA tools can do some very handy things. They can be used for both test data and regression testing. In this article, we’ll walk through a real testing example and show how you can get started using RPA. [TOP 6 on the Ministry of testing 2018 article list]
  2. Testing is Shifting [Testing Planet 2017 by the Ministry of Testing, Mar 2017]: Change is the only constant, they say, but we still need to manage change – and cope with it. Coping not only means surviving mentally, but also adjusting to whatever happens and figuring out how to be productive and create value for our stakeholders when things change. [https://dojo.ministryoftesting.com/lessons/testing-is-shifting]
  3. About Closure [The Testing Planet by Ministry of Testing, Nov 2014] When I’m in a testing activity I want my test cases [Passed], my user stories [done] and my coffee [black].  Stuff may have a start point, some states in between and an end state. Let’s look at ways to represent states and articulate the meaning of states. [Reposted: Closing the Gaps]
  4. The Daily Defect Count and the Image of a Camel [The Testing Planet by The Ministry of Testing, April 2014] Count the defects daily – the ones that are part of the project work load. The number goes up and down during the cycle – why and what can you learn? [Reposted: A Track down History ]
  5. The Day Testing Died But Didn’t [The Testing Planet by Ministry of Testing, Jan 2014] To play according to textbooks is fine, up to a certain level. Perhaps up to master level, but not to grand masters. [Reposted: Chess and Testing ]
  6. One Test Case is All You Need [The Testing Planet by The Ministry of Testing, November 2013] If you can come up with just one business transaction – that crystallizes why the customer will be kicking and screaming to want to use your application, then you have a very good understanding of your customer and all you need is that one testcase. [Reposted: One Test Case is All You Need. Original on WebArchive.org]
  7. Recognize and Acknowledge Your Skills [The Testing Planet by the Ministry of Testing, June 2013] What you know and what you do is an important part of being you. Often it is required to rethink: What do I know? What are my skills? How strong are they? [Reposted: https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/tying-it-all-together/]
  8. The Build-A-Tester Workshop [The Testing Planet by The Ministry of Testing, June 2013] A small social game of Build-A-Tester can be used in a team to open the discussion, less formally than with Belbin and MBTI checklists. [on WebArchive.org]
  9. A Little Track History that goes a Long Way [The Testing Planet by Ministry of Testing, July 2011] The purpose of this tracking tool is to collect just enough data to answer the frequent question “Will we finish on time” [Reposted; A Track down History ]