thoughts from the test eye

This was originally meant as an answer to the (ironic) thread http://thetesteye.com/blog/2009/06/long-live-the-waterfall/ where a new thread was forked when Ola Janson launched a couple of questions regarding agile development. My answers and thoughts on those questions are listed here.

In one reply to Ola, Rikard says that he has “…never worked in a truly Agile project…” but what is a “truly Agile” project really?

I have worked in both agile (quick and well-coordinated in movement) and Agile (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/) projects.
Here are my thoughts and observations.

• Being agile as a team could apply to any jelled team with a developed group dynamic which manages to quickly respond to problems that might arise. It could also be applicable for any team that has ability to minimise the cost of change instead of trying to avoid the change. I have been in such teams.
• Being Agile as a team is when the team agrees upon the Agile Manifesto (Note: remember that the Agile Manifesto is a set of values and not a set of laws). I have been in such teams.
• XP, Scrum, DSDM, Lean, Kanban, etc are process tools in that they help you work more effectively by, to a certain extent, telling you what to do. These process tools must live up to the Agile Manifesto and are described practises for how to work in an Agile fashion more or less structured; each method has its benefits and drawbacks and none of them are comprehensive. That is why you often see combinations of different “Agile” processes e.g., XP (developing method) and Scrum (team management method) and Continuous Integration (incremental build method).
• You can work in an agile team and still utilize Agile methods such as Scrum or XP; but you could also use other non-Agile methods and still be agile.
• You can work in an Agile team and don’t utilize any of the big recognized “Agile” methods.
• Being a tester in an agile team (or project) is gold.
• Being a tester in an Agile team (or project) can be a smooth experience but it could also be painful. My experience is that if you as a tester are not engaged or involved in the team you will have difficulties. E.g., since documentation is not prioritised you need to know more about the software continuously and therefore there will be problems if you are not engaged in the day-to-day development of the project. And many times the team has been forced into working according to a specific Agile method that does not seem to be suitable for the context of project; and it might be very well suited for programmers but not at all suitable for the testing tasks.

The key thing with the agile movement, as I see it, is that the methods on how to develop software have evolved from the project context and, perhaps most importantly, being defined by the team members themselves. Therefore I believe that those projects have had a successful outcome, at least from the team-perspective. Many times it has correlated with business success.

The Agile movement on the other hand, which originally has sprung from the agile movement, has become more and more strict and promoting “best practises” on how to work Agile. This has become the new cash cow for many consultant firms and they of course promote and teach the “real way” of doing things. But I guess that many founders of the Agile Manifesto really think that it should be more agile than Agile…
So nowadays there are, and will be more and more, voices raised which question the new face of agile/Agile and instead promote the “original” thoughts; or at least the thoughts that they believed in then and still do.

My conclusion is: Find out what matters for you; your team; and project. Define a process that will work for you.

Read more about Agile vs. agile:

• Agile Versus agile Development – http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/from-the-editor-mainmenu-45/18-agile-versus-agile-development
• Defining Agile Methodology – http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/45

Find out if your team is agile (or is it Agile?)

• Back-of-a-Napkin Agile Assessment – http://testobsessed.com/2008/11/28/back-of-a-napkin-agile-assessment/

Examples of reactions on current Agile methods:

• Artisanal Retro-Futurism crossed with Team-Scale Anarcho-Syndicalism – http://arxta.net/
• Cargo Cult Agile – http://www.exotribe.com/node/16
• WAgile – http://www.parlezuml.com/blog/?postid=708
• Who Stole Agile? – http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/51

Group dynamics

• Read about “Jelled team” (and other interesting topics) in Peopleware – http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/pw.html