Master Thesis presentation: Test processes for a Scrum team
Date: June 18, 2009 (Thursday) at 11:15
Erik Karlsson och Fredrik Mårtensson presenterar sitt examensarbete "Test processes for a Scrum team".
Handledare:
Emelie Engström
Examinator:
Per Runeson
Abstract:
Many software engineering projects have adapted Agile management methods like Scrum during the last years. For software testing in Scrum environments information is limited and guidelines and practices are less well established. How do testing work in combination with Agile development, and how do the tester role fit in Agile teams?
Our goal was to examine the testing process in a Scrum team and provide potential process changes to improve their testing. This included eliciting existing requirements on the testing and researching how their testing should be performed, in terms of methodology, processes and routines. Finally, we investigated how competence and responsibility should be distributed within a team that is using Agile developing methods.
Background information on the existing process was collected and discussed with the team members through group interviews. This information along with relevant books or scientific papers was used to create theoretical change proposals and the team’s opinions where collected through a group interview session. The results from this interview was then used for synthesizing an implementation suggestion adapted for the conditions at the section.
Traditionally a separation between the testers and developers has been highly valued. It is argued that it would be hard for the developers to conceptualize potential faults with their own code. Such a separation does not tie in well with the Agile principles of face-to-face conversation and emphasis on working software over comprehensive documentation. Studies also indicate that the benefits of having a close relationship between the two roles outweighs the downsides, as it raises the cross competence in the team.
Our proposed changes to the current testing process is to introduce Acceptance tests, which we mean should be automated. These practises should be combined with well structured, session based, exploratory testing. For existing applications we propose that Unit tests and automated Acceptance tests are retrofitted when changes are made.
Room: E:2116
Last modified Dec 9, 2011 12:57 pm by Mikael.Antic@cs.lth.se
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