Analyzing the traditional approach:

In the traditional approach, the testing team is handed over the project only after the entire development is complete. Then the testers themselves spend a long time in completing the testing life cycle, following the conventional process.  Having a process is not a bad idea but it should be flexible depending on the size of the project.

Small scale projects take lesser development time and require frequent changes to be made. Applying the traditional testing method in such a scenario will result in the testing team taking more time than the actual development effort.

Let’s see why the traditional approach is not suitable for small scale projects,

• There won’t be enough time to write test cases. [60% of testing effort consists of test case creation where the testers need to identify each and every aspect of a particular scenario]
• Another time consuming process is the Test Case Review. The quality relies on the test cases, making the test case review a must.
• If there are any changes in requirement, all the test cases created needs to be modified.
• Writing test cases parallel to the development work can be done only when a good specification documentation is at hand. If that is not the case, the work on test cases starts only after development and hence it cannot be shared with the developers during coding time. But if both testers and developers work in parallel, many bugs can be identified and rectified during development time itself.
• Requires lot of formal communication between the teams, which also takes a lot of time.

Agile methodology:

Agile testing, which is now a globally accepted testing methodology, offers better efficiency and a more flexible approach. We can define the agile methodology as an ‘Adaptive’ process, i.e. it suggests change of plans for accommodating new requirements and modifications, rather than stubbornly sticking to the original plan of work..Thus the methodology supports changes in functionality without adversely affecting the cost of production. . An agile testing methodology relies on face-to-face communication and collaboration with team members and customers, thus the project does not need any verbose requirement specification documents. Moreover the agile testing methodology relies on lightweight documentation.

Why it is effective:

• Customized checklist instead of comprehensive test cases [If time permits test cases can be created in parallel with the development for core functionalities].
• ‘Checklist Review’ will be easier since we are following a customized checklist.
• Any requirement change can be easily incorporated to the checklist.
• Both testers and developers will work together as a team which helps to a great extent in achieving project milestones.
• The day starts with the following being discussed,
  • What has to be done today?
  • What happened yesterday?

This gives an opportunity for the testers to point out bugs, offer suggestions and clarify doubts even at the initial stages of coding which gives the development team a concrete target to aim at.

• Development of checklist starts along with coding, hence all real scenarios can be added to the checklist.
• Once the checklist is created then both testers and developers can execute it ensuring the quality of the work.
• Lots of informal communication among the team including face to face communication. Hence the requirements are clear and the team can move forward together in an organized manner.

Some of the common pitfalls of testing activity are that it doesn’t test the right functionality, or it spends too much time in some areas, or is too detailed. These are the symptoms of poor testing, and can be mitigated by agile testing methodology.

In today’s IT industry the top priorities are supreme quality, customer satisfaction and how fast the team achieves the target. ‘Agile Testing Methodology’ facilitates all these and hence for us it’s the way to go.

At Software Associates we have adopted the Agile Scrum way of working for execution of small and medium sized projects. This methodology lays stress on iterative development, focusing on a working product at all times in the execution lifecycle. A large project is broken down into releases and releases to sprints. The project gets executed through multiple time-boxed sprints, in which user stories are implemented as fully functional features and integrated into an evolving working product. Multiple small scrum teams are involved in the execution of the project instead of large teams.

During the execution of a sprint, collaboration within the team is ensured through daily scrum meetings and progress is tracked through burn-down charts and scrum boards. A sprint culminates in a sprint demo that verifies the features developed against the acceptance criteria. A sprint retrospective conducted at the end of every sprint strives to improve the efficiency of the scrum team continuously.

Some of the key advantages of agile model are as follows:

•  Iterative method of execution through intermediate releases facilitates early feedback and corrections
•  Requirements are consumed sprint by sprint in small portions. This enables start of development work even before complete clarity on the entire functionality is achieved. Clarifications for features being implemented are obtained sprint by sprint.
•  Requirements are managed through product backlog and implemented sprint by sprint by creating sprint backlog. Each sprint / release gives an opportunity to reprioritize the features / user stories.
• The early testing involved in the agile iterative approach unearths issues early on.

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We have been following agile development methodology since early 2007 for some of the large portal projects. I must admit that it has been some learning experience for the team members and we were apprehensive about the project success. Having completed and delivered on time (as we always do), we were proud to get fantastic feedback from our clients in London and Seattle.