Agile Testing vs Exploratory Testing

This month I will be doing two sets of training sessions - one for Agile Testing (AT) and one for Exploratory Testing (ET). I have extensive experience with both and I enjoy teaching and coaching both activities. This is the first time that I have been asked to do both training sessions at basically the same time, so I have been giving the relationship between the two some thought.

Over the past decade I have sometimes struggled with the difference between the two. I admit that I have on occasion even described them as being the same thing. Having given it some thought, I now think differently.

The insight came to me when I had a conversation with someone about both topics recently. The courses I'm doing have different audiences, different outlines, and different expected behaviours/outcomes. Yes, there is some overlap, but not much.

I have written previously about what I believe is ET (it's an interesting post - I suggest you take a moment to read it if you haven't already). Near the end of that article, I mention Agile Software Development and the Agile Testing Quadrants, so there is some relationship between the two.

ET is sometimes described as an exemplar of the Context-Driven Software Testing community. If you read through the seven basic principles of the Context-Driven Testing (CDT) School you may see where there are similarities in the philosophies between it and the values & principles listed in the Agile manifesto. Things like:

• CDT: People work together to solve the problem
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• ...face-to-face conversation
• Business people and developers work together daily throughout the project
• CDT: Projects are often unpredictable
• Respond to change
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development...
• Deliver working software frequently...
•  CDT: No best practices
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design ...
• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams ...

And we could probably make a few more connections between Agile and the CDT principles.

So what are some of the differences?

Shuhari

When I work with teams to help them learn something new, I try to pay attention to a few things. Firstly, I pay attention to how people are learning, and secondly how I am teaching.

When I used to teach Physics and Chemistry in high school, one validation of 'success' often came from how the students left the classroom. Generally, teenagers often came into one of those classes the same way (at least at the start of the year): I don't want to be here, this isn't important to me, I'm not going to learn anything useful.

Okay. Gauntlet down. Let's begin.

What is Exploratory Testing?

What is Exploratory Testing (ET)? I am asked this every once in a while and I hear a wide range of ideas as to what it is. This is one of those topics where Wikipedia doesn't really help much.

For some, ET is just "good" testing and the reason we say "exploratory" is to distinguish it from bad testing practices. Unfortunately, bad, lazy, haphazard, thoughtless, incomplete, and incompetent testing is quite popular. I won't go into the reasons or supporting evidence for this disgraceful blight on the Software Development industry at this time. Suffice it to say, I don't want to be mixed in with that lot either, so I am happy to describe what I do as something different - something that is far more successful and rewarding when done well.

Okay, so if ET = [good] testing, what is testing then? According to Cem Kaner, "software testing is a technical investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test." This definition took me a while to absorb but the more I thought about it the more I found it to be a pretty good definition.

If you ask Elisabeth Hendrickson, she would say that "a test is an experiment designed to reveal information or answer a specific question about the software or system." See, now I really like this definition! I studied Science in university and I love the way this definition reminds me of the Scientific Method. The more I learn about testing software, the more I find similarities with doing good Science. (By the way, if you want to learn more about how to do good testing, I highly recommend you read up on the Scientific Method. So much goodness in there!)

So, is that all there is to it? Testing = Science, blah blah blah, and we're done? Um, well, no, not really. ET has its own Wikipedia page after all!

Quality Center Must Die

It is not a matter of "if" -- it is a matter of "when" HP's Quality Center software will die.  And you, my dear readers will help make that happen.

"How?" you may ask? Simple. There are two things you should do: (1) think, and (2) don't put up with crap that gets in the way of delivering value to the customer and interacting intelligently with other human beings.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind the story a bit...

Several months ago I was hired by my client to help train one of the test teams on agile and exploratory testing methods. The department has followed a mostly Waterfall development model until now and wants to move in the Agile direction. (A smart choice for them, if you ask me.) Why am I still there after all this time? That's a good question.

After attending the Problem Solving Leadership course last year, and after attending a few AYE conferences, I changed my instructional style to be more the kind of consultant that empowers the client with whatever they need to help themselves learn and grow.  It's a bit of a slower pace, but the results are more positive and long-lasting.

I am a part of a "pilot" agile/scrum team and am working closely with one of the testers (I will call him "Patient Zero") to coach him on good testing practices to complement the agile development processes. I have done this several times now at different clients, so this is nothing new to me. One of the unexpected surprises that cropped up this time was that this development team is not an end-to-end delivery team, so when they are "done" their work, the code moves into a Waterfall Release process and it all kind of falls apart. There are still some kinks to be solved here and I am happy to see some really bright, caring people trying to solve these problems. So that's okay.