One more question... slides from #CAST2014 workshop

Questions are a powerful tool, and good questioning skills are extremely important for both people and in testing. Through effective use, we can engage in more effective learning, create outside-the-box thinking and start decision making conversations. Tony will explore the power of questions and their ability to make us and others think by looking at items such as the use of probing questions, tone and rephrasing. He will work through exercises to allow participants to practice some of what they are learning. Participants will walk away with ideas on how to sharpen their questioning skills to a fine tool which can be used to transform their every conversation and to increase their testing thinking. Questions can help create and negate, learn and teach, and stop and start projects, connections and relationships. Add this ability to your tool set.

No time left at the end of the sprint for proper testing

In the Agile Testing Linkedin Grp the following was posted:

No time left at the end of the sprint for proper testing

Designers tend to add and change code until the end of a sprint, not leaving enough time to do all the agreed testing. At the start of a sprint, we assign rough time estimates to user stories, taking both design and test activities into account. Some tests are automated and run during the night.
However, other tests need manual preparation of data and partly manual execution and result analysis. There is also some amount of exploratory testing involved. During the sprint, there always seems to be a reason not to deliver yet to test: fixes, improvements and design updates. At the end of the sprint, little time is left for manual testing, far too less for running the tests, analyzing and repairing eventual bugs, retest and results logging.
What advise do you have for me, so that I can claim and really use a fair amount of the sprint time for testing?

With a follow up post of:

What I called 'delivery' is not a heavy weight process wall. It is just a oral notification in the team stand up meeting that some story is ready for test. Our way of working is pretty much in line with all points you mention: except for point 5. "Testing is a fair amount of the sprint if done well". I think 1 day left for testing out of a 2 week sprint is not this 'fair' amount. The pattern that I have to cope with is: several user stories are coded in parallel and they tend to be 'ready for test' all at the same time, that is: 1 day before sprint end. The tester is involved in functionality and architectural discussions during the sprint and prepares test data and test scripts, ready to 'push the button' when a story is ready.

My (currently unpublished) comment (with minor changes):

So, based on the info you've provided I'm going to make a bunch of suppositions along with ask a number of questions.

1. Is there a definition of 'done'? Does it include testing? If so, it seems like it's being ignored?
* If it is being ignored are there retrospectives held? What happens when this is brought up?
* Is the issue being recognised by the rest of the team?
* Is it being recognised and cared about?
* Are the powers that be aware?

2. Are the stories broken up into tasks? If so is it possible to test the tasks?

3. If what you are working on is broken up into (small) stories and setting aside the late adjustments there should be a constant stream of stories coming through, if not, has this been looked at? If so, what was the outcome?

4. Is it possible for team members to pair? IE testers and devs, ba's and testers, ba's and devs, etc.

5. Is there a visual representation of story process? Visible by everybody?

6. Is this way of working new to the team/company? Was there help making the transition? If there was, were they any good? Were any new people with more experience in this way of working hired?

7. Are you/the testers prepared to play hard ball? You can't possibly test a sprints worth of work in a day, so don't try.

8. How are the late adjustments getting into the story? They should be judged on value and as a team decided on whether or not they get into the sprint. Failing that then a story/stories can be dropped to allow for changes.

9. Is there a scrum master type role? Is he/she someone who has gone and gotten the CSM or are they experienced?
* Experience is very hard to judge, how is it done?

10. Is there a way to prepare test data through automation?

11. Is there any skill sets lacking in the team in general?

It doesn't seem like you have a testing issue, you have a team/culture/mindset issue.

I'd like to know what I've missed?

 

 

It doesn't make sense.

I stole this, I changed two words:

People work with one set of ideas about how the software is. Everything they do, be it experimental or theoretical work, is informed by, and framed within, that set of ideas. There will be some evidence that doesn't fit, however. At first, that evidence will be ignored or sabotaged. Eventually, though, the anomalies will pile up so high they simply cannot be ignored or sabotaged any longer. Then comes crisis.
13 Things That Don't Make Sense - Michael Brooks.

To me, this is a pretty good explanation of software development, although of course, not in all cases of software development.

It's also a pretty good reason why things like agile, devops, devs, bdd, etc have come about.

We do approach things with a set of ideas and we do frame things with that set of ideas in mind.

We stick to our own ideas, even though some of our ideas have been born out of others' ideas and thoughts and words and we've blindly made them our ideas and thoughts.
- For more on this train of thought refer to Leprechauns of Software Development or various kinds of certification.

When we have ideas that we have actually conceived it can be a good thing because we all have different experiences, we all have different thoughts, we can all add something.

I think the problems occur when we don't let go of theses ideas (when beneficial) and learn from others experiences and listen to others ideas.

A lot of time we don't conceive ideas together for something we are supposed to be working on together.

What's wrong with us?

Doesn't make sense to me.

Make sense to you?

Continuing with the excerpts from 13 Things That Don't Make Sense The next paragraph starts with the sentence:

Crisis, Kuhn said, is soon followed by the paradigm shift in which everyone gains a radically new way of looking at the world.

Does it? Not for software development, not as much as needed.

In the context of software development the sentence would read:

Crisis, Kuhn said, is soon followed by a attempt to throw more people at, work longer hours to stem and follow the procedures that caused the crisis in the first place until the next crisis arrives.

What's wrong with us?

Total awareness of conditioning

How do I free myself from my conditioning of the culture in which I was born? First, I must be aware that I am conditioned; not somebody telling me that I am conditioned. You understand the difference?

If somebody tells me I am hungry, that’s something different from actually being hungry. So I must be aware of my conditioning, which means, I must be aware of it not only superficially, but at the deeper levels. That is, I must be aware totally.

To be so aware, means that I am not trying to go beyond the conditioning, not trying to be free of the conditioning. I must see it as it actually is, not bring in another element, such as wanting to be free of it, because that is an escape from actuality. I must be aware. What does that mean?

To be aware of my conditioning totally, not partially, means my mind must be highly sensitive, mustn’t it? Otherwise, I can’t be aware.

To be sensitive means to observe everything very, very closely; the colours, the quality of people, all the things around me. I must also be aware of what actually is without any choice. Can you do that?

Not trying to interpret it, not trying to change it, not trying to go beyond it or trying to be free of it; just to be totally aware of it?

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Awakening of Intelligence

London Tester Gathering - Tues 15th January - The Shooting Star

The January London Tester Gathering will be on Tuesday 15th January at The Shooting Star.

Address:
125-129 Middlesex St, London E1 7JF

The plan:
We have a room from 6:00pm onwards

Talks:
Weeknight Testing Q&A
Net-A-Porter are hiring.

Sponsorship:
Net-A-Porter
http://www.net-a-porter.com

Hope to see you there.

http://www.meetup.com/agiletesting/events/95777622/

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.

I'm supposed to be negative?

So I've overheard recently  (over the last year or so) things like: 'It gets tiring being negative all the time and pointing mistakes and people flaws.'

And it confused me.

Is that what I'm supposed to be doing?!

Crap!

I've been doing it wrong!

Should I be negative?

Should I be pointing out flaws in peoples work?

Should I be pointing out flaws in peoples ideas?

Should I be stating that people are doing shoddy work?

Am I there to break things?

Am I there to find the breaks?

I thought I was part of a team and we worked together on creating something.

I thought I approached things differently and could add valuable input because of that.

I thought we were solving a problem and approaching it from different angles.

I thought I was there to provide information.

I thought  we evolved together.

Did I think wrong?

Ted talk: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

Book review: Dealing with Difficult People

Dealing with Difficult People: 24 Lessons for Bringing Out the Best In Everyone.

Dr. Rick Kirschner(Author), Dr. Rick Brinkman (Author) 

From the back cover:

In every workplace there are difficult people who, at best, make life stressful and, at worst, can keep you from achieving important goals. But it's within your power to bring out the best behaviour in people who are their worst.

If you are interested in working with people more effectively or work with quirky people and aren't sure how to deal with that this book is good place to start.

The book breaks up what it lists as the 10 most unwanted behaviours:

The Tank

The Sniper

The Grenade

The Know-it-All

The Think-They-Know-it-All

The Yes Person

The Maybe Person

The Nothing Person

The No Person

The Whiner

You can pretty much guess the behaviours of each from what they are called and you probably have already matched some to people you know.

I kind of think we all have a little of all of those within is.

The book starts with some initial general ideas for dealing with all 10. Things like:

Understand that everybody reacts differently to these types of behaviour: The person who's most irritating to you may be perfectly acceptable to someone else.

It then goes into Choosing your approach, then understanding the behaviours and intent.  Four intents are written about:
get it done
get it right
get along
get appreciated

It delves a little deeper into communication and briefly discusses things like blending and redirecting. Pygmalion power is also mentioned.

After that it starts focussing in on the list of 10 and digging in deeper to each one.

I found there were some mixed messages, in some sections there are statments such as 'There's no magic formula; you are the best judge of which choice is right in any particular situation' and in a different section there is the following 'Here is a surefire five-step process to break your Nothing Person's silence'

All in all it's a good starting point if you are interested in this kind of thing.  

Read it, ingest it, think about it.