Category Archives: CAST 2013

Agile will FAIL

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Agile, Agile2013, CAST 2013, Experiences

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The closing keynote at CAST 2013 was Scott Barber and Rob Sabourin describing takeaways from each of the talks of the conference, bringing together many different talks into themes or striking moments. As a speaker, I was on tenterhooks waiting to find out what Scott would say about my talk. It was not what I expected, a moment from before my talk that he described as a “kick to the head” (in a good way):
Scott's Takeaway from my Walking Skeletons talk
He pointed out that I was emphasizing empathizing with people with different experience and perspective, which was important enough to say explicitly before I began my talk. So with that in mind, I want to talk about a foreign perspective I encountered at my other software conference of the year.

At Agile2013, someone taped large sheets of sketch paper to the wall with a large writing prompt:

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to which many people replied in various ways during the week. Some of these responses were rebellious, resisting the seeming prophecy of failed agile. Others felt trapped by unresponsive or rigid organization behavior and hierarchy, industry regulation, or even customers. Contributors felt that companies with only a shallow understanding of agile or simply name-only “implementation” had no real difference in the way of working. Culture weighed heavily on the minds of attendees: belief, passion, desire, emotion, infighting, courage, trust, support, motivation, thinking. So people problems were at the heart of most expectations of failure.

To me, the most provocative perspectives I saw on that wall were not focusing on agile but on the demonstrated value delivered through whatever works, focusing on outcomes. Today, a friend pointed out a Mike Cottmeyer article from 2009 that discussed defining value in agile but at the enterprise level in terms of real business outcomes:

As an organization, we know that we need to deliver value as fast as possible… but we can’t figure out how to apply the small team concepts to our particular business problems. That’s why you get the classic “agile will never work here” comments. There is an inherent disconnect between the team level guidance agile methodologies talk about and the bigger concerns your senior executives are struggling with. There is a gap between value at the team level and value at the enterprise level.

Four years later, Agile2013 conference attendees are still wrestling articulating delivery of complex business objectives to business leaders. And while I also struggle with messaging how my work provides value to the enterprise, I’ve never experienced an agile transformation and so it hadn’t occurred to me to wonder whether agile could succeed. It’s always been business-as-usual, in my experience.

The full (transcribed) list from the Agile2013 wall:

  • We think we are “Agile”
  • The concept of “dedicated to one task at a time” is not supported!
  • They won’t change
    • Response: “They”? Maybe this is contributing to the problem
  • Because CEO manages with fear and intimidation
  • … Only focused on changes in development teams; not looking at whole value stream (product ideation & management)
  • No buy-in from the business
  • Duplicitous product owners (two masters)
  • because of our culture
    • Response: √
  • because my customer prefers waterfall…
  • Because the company wears “agile” as a label and yet does nothing to remove the bureaucracy and obstacles teams face daily while trying to implement agile.
    • Response: √
  • We lose trust in each other
  • … Adoption is done because of convenience not because of conviction.
  • We are different
    • Response: … Just like everyone else who has done it.
  • XP NOT DEAD!
  • Our egos are bigger & more important than the company goals
  • A re-org will set us back to the beginning, again and again. (weekly)
    • Response: √
  • Of me.
  • …Insufficient support from leadership
    • Response: Totally agree
  • Different part of the biz use different types of agile
  • Deeply hierarchy…. Project leader doesn’t want Agile.
  • my leadership team no longer believes in it 🙁
  • … it’s counterintuitive & hard to practice
  • Because agile is a state of being… NOT doing! Agile is grossly misunderstood… SADLY!
  • … because Agile is not the goal. Agile is simply a MEANS to and END
    • Response: Agree!
  • We only fund CAPITAL projects
  • Because I just think on the consequence not the cause. We should be able to teach the noble truth behind agile methods. Teach that discipline is not a fantasy. If we try hard as a team we can achieve anything. – She Liang
  • My manager has to assign work to the team
  • It does not support SECURE software (ISO27000 or code analyzers)
  • They don’t want to change. & no lean leadership.
  • Too much focus on the mechanics of the process. Not enough on the motivation/passion behind it.
    • Response: +1
  • We have not explained the ‘why’
  • Not everyone on our team understands it.
  • It won’t, because I work at Rackspace! 🙂
  • “Lack of Courage…”
  • We don’t want it badly enough
  • Because I’m writing on this wall & I think it will so it will
  • We can’t show the value
  • “What we do already works!?”
  • Crash at current (complex) business model
  • Jim
  • Strong and growing PMO traditional structure being instituted
  • We don’t think by ourselves. We need to think everyday, every time, everywhere!
    • Response: Agreed.
  • Our culture won’t *change*
    • Response: √

Q: Maybe someone can clarify that business model remark for me? I wasn’t quite sure what that said…

Fresh Perspective

17 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in CAST 2013, ISST, Training, User Experience

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fresh_princeI can’t remember what it was like to start working as a tester. Ten years later, the only impression I have left of that time is voracious learning. So yesterday’s debut of the ISST webinar series focusing on the first 2 weeks on the job as a tester was a good refresher for me.

Ben Kelly gave a description of two distinct new testers and their experiences of adjusting to the expectations for testers. This reminded me of Pradeep’s talk at CAST this year about his “baby shark” new testing trainees. I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me since they’re among the founding members of ISST.

Both emphasized that novices have an advantage: ignorance. While that doesn’t sound like a very positive description, one you might not want to claim for yourself, it resonates with me. Most of my professional progress has been made asking the dumb questions that filled in my ignorance, pointing me in the right direction rather than remaining stagnant.

But ignorance is not enough, merely lacking information one stagnates. Curiosity turns ignorance into action, transforming it into a powerful tool. (I think this is what people refer to as beginner’s mind, though I haven’t studied that concept myself.) Pradeep explains that newbies have a tactical advantage in not having been misled yet. Ben reminds us that while asking questions seems so simple it’s actually deep exploration of context, not just about business content but also about team expectations.

When Pradeep’s freshers (I think I’m using that right, right??) go out into the world to help start-ups with testing, they’re learning multiple contexts. This adds a bit of complexity to the already daunting task of acquiring testing skills. Sounds intimidating, doesn’t it? While these testers get on-the-job training, the start-ups experience the value of a context-driven testing approach focused on providing business value, which shifts from business to business.

Ben and Pradeep emphatically drilled us on providing information in the way the consumers can understand. Knowing that they have multiple audiences, testers must be excellent communicators. As an intuitive person, this intimidates me – and it sounds like other empathic testers may have similar trouble. I took my first stab at messaging about testing with members of my product team since that was most familiar to me. However, test reporting above the product team hasn’t been a big part of my career so far. My primary approach there has been getting to know the end users.

I know this webinar was aimed at less experienced testers, but I’m reminded that I could use a fresh approach myself. Like some (formal) practice in session debrief? Joining forces with sales for product demos? What approaches keep test reporting fresh for you?

Image credit

My stupid human trick

05 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in Approaches, CAST 2013, Context, Experiences, Experiments, Soft Skills, Testing Humor, Volunteering

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When I was growing up, my family and I would watch shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos that often involved montages of people showing off their ridiculous talents – sometimes inadvertently!

One of my earliest experiences in my testing career was participating in a planning meeting. The whole product development team migrated to the corner of our open workspace where a large board-room-style table sat lonely on most days. We all pulled up chairs, but I was one of the attendees who also pulled up a laptop. I started typing up the details of what I was hearing and began asking questions, like I do. The most exciting moment of that planning meeting was the developers noticing that I was still furiously typing their responses to the previous question while moving on to another. Apparently typing one thing and saying another was my amazing stupid human trick. My keyboarding teacher would be so proud.

To this day, my fast fingers continue to amaze, as many physically present and online lurking CAST 2013 attendees can attest. So what’s the secret to my Twitter dominance? The Micro Machines Man John Moschitta, Jr. described his rapid speech delivery as just allowing the words to flow in through his eyes and out through his mouth, so my analogue is in through my eyes and ears and out through my fingers – though I’ll allow the 140 character constraint does require some synthesis along the way.

(So, yes, Claire, we’re all very impressed with your speedy typing, but is it really all that important? Is there a point behind your stupid human trick?)

I find that content generation is a valued skill, even when it’s just providing information from someone else via social media. Helping others to feel present and included is part of my hospitality charism and I want to bring that to bear in the context-driven testing community. I started out as an online lurker and eventually became a participant, but now I have the opportunity to be an amplifier. I like to think of myself as an information radiator, bringing valuable information to light. Now what will you radiate?

The following graph of Agile2018 tweets is even funnier when you realize I was also @agilealliance (not just @aclairefication) #top2 LOL

See you soon

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Agile, Agile2013, CAST 2013, Experiences, Exploratory Testing, Scrum, Speaking, Training

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I’m excited to announce that I will be speaking at two conferences this year!

If you’re on your way to Agile2013 in Nashville in August, please stop by my full-length Big Visible Testing session in the experience report track. I simply didn’t have enough time to tell you all the cool stuff in my CAST 2012 emerging topic.
If you’re excited about trying exploratory testing with some in-person coaching, Matt Heusser and I will be there for you.
Or catch up with me some time that week to say hi.
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If you’re on your way to CAST 2013 in Madison in August, start out your conference with my Walking Skeletons, Butterflies, & Islands: an agile journey experience report.
I look forward to fielding your questions about agile testing!
CAST2013_LessonsLearned

Sadly, my talks will not be streamed online this year, but you might enjoy the webCAST lineup!