Agile and Exploratory Testing

Agile software projects can deliver better results for both the customer and the project team. Team members work collaboratively to deliver regular releases of working software on agile projects. As a result testing activities become vital through the length of the project and software developers play a greater role in the testing of their own deliverables. To successfully transition onto agile projects, testers need to adopt a different mindset and new techniques when compared to traditional projects.

This two-day course provides a solid grounding in agile values and principles with a particular focus on the software testing role. It then explores the software testing approaches and techniques required on agile projects, including automating agile tests, exploratory testing, and session-based testing.

The ‘Agile and Exploratory Testing’ course is delivered by seasoned software testing practitioner consultants who undertake software testing and test management activities on a daily basis.

Duration

2 Days

Course Objectives

Following the completion of this course, students will be able to:

Explain the core values and principles of agile software development
Understand the mindset and technique changes required to be a good agile tester
Demonstrate how automated testing helps agile projects deliver
Apply the basics of exploratory testing and session-based testing

Audience

Testers and test Analysts
Developers
Test managers and team leaders
Project roles that include testing activities

Course Syllabus

Agile 101 for Testers

The agile manifesto – values and principles
Popular agile frameworks including Scrum and XP
Team collaboration versus management control
What an agile project looks like
How the tester role changes on an agile project

Automating Agile Tests

Fit – Framework for Integrated Test
FitNesse – open-source framework for automated acceptance testing
NUnit – code-driven testing
Watir – web application testing in Ruby
Overview of scripting languages for agile testing – ruby, perl, python
Automated test data generation
Demo and instructor-led session of automating a test

Exploratory Testing

What is exploratory testing?
When to use exploratory testing
Heuristics for testing
When to stop testing
Test strategies for exploratory testing
Session-based testing
What is session-based testing?
Exercise: Performing exploratory testing

Session-based Testing

What is session-based testing?
How to measure session-based tests
Exercise: Performing a session-based test

Related Courses

Agile 101 using Scrum and XP
Testing and TDD for Java Developers
Certified ScrumMaster
Practical Software Testing
Innovative Software Testing Approaches
Intermediate Software Testing Techniques
Innovative Software Testing Approaches
Practical Software Test Management
Structured User Acceptance Testing
Walkthroughs, Reviews, Inspections

Prerequisites

Participants should have experience in the fundamentals of software testing. General software testing knowledge can be obtained by attending the ‘Practice Software Testing’ course.