Agile Methodology

AGILE:

It is a iterative and incremental approach.

The main goal of agile is customer satisfaction by quick delivery of working software.

PRINCIPLE OF AGILE METHODOLOGY: 

• Customer can change the requirement at any point of development stage.
• Release should be short.
• There will be good communication between customer, BA, developer and Test Engineer.
• It is simple model to adopt.
• Developers and test engineers will be doing lot of meetings at regular intervals in order to improve the quality of process.

What is agile testing?

Testing the software by following the principle of agile methodology is called agile testing.

Types of agile methodologies?

1.      Scrum methodologies

2.      XP (Extreme Programming)

3.      FDD (Feature driven development)

4.      Crystal Clear

5.      Lean and Kanban

6.      ASDM (Adoptive Software Development Method)

7.      DSDM (Dynamic Software Development Method)

Scrum methodologies/Scrum Process:

1.      Release:  Combination of sprints is called release

2.      EPIC: Complete set of requirement is called EPIC

One EPIC consist of multiple features or modules

User Stories/Stories/Story Cards:

Feature or modules or functionalities is called as Stories

One EPIC consist of multiple stories

Story Point:

It is rough estimation given developer and test engineer to develop and test individual stories

Ex: 

1 story point=9 hours

1 SP=6

1 SP=8

Story point should be in Fibonacci series

QA Story points estimated based on the following aspects:

Time spent on understanding story

Write test scenarios

Write test cases

Review test cases

Test case execution

Defect tracking

Developer Story points estimated based on the following aspects:

Understanding requirements

Design

Coding

Reviewing code

WBT

Time spent on fixing the defects

Swag:

The rough estimation given by developer and test engineer for every individual stories in the form of hours

Sprint:

Sprint is the actual time spent by developers and test engineer to develop and test one or more stories

Sprint planning:

Sprint planning is a meeting conducted by scrum master on the first day every sprint

Explain the requirement

Identify list of task to be done

Assign task to engineer

Scrum Master:

Scrum master is a person who is responsible for delivery of the software to the customer within a planned period of time.

Scrum master will tract all the activities done by developer, test engineer and BA.

BA/Senior test engineer / senior developer /Project manager and even customer can become Scrum Master.

Scrum Meeting:

It is a meeting conducted by a scrum master on the daily basis.

It is also called as daily stand up meeting

This meeting is strictly bounded for 15 to 20 minutes

In this meeting we discuss below mentioned points

• What you did yesterday
• What have you planned today
• Are there any obstacles or impediments

Sprint retrospective meeting

It is a meeting conducted by scrum master on the last day of every sprint

In this meeting we discuss the following points

• What went well
• What didn’t go well
• Are there any actions plan

Release retrospective meeting

It is the meeting conducted by scrum master on the last day of every sprint

Bug triage meeting:

This is the meeting conducted by the test engineer or scrum master a week or 2 week before the release.

BA,TE,Developer and SM will be a part of meeting

In this meeting test engineer list all the open and pending bugs which are not fixed by the developers in the current and previous release as a team we will re prioritize the defect from the customers’ business point of view and decide how many bugs should be fixed as part of a current release and how many bugs can be move to upcoming release.

Product Backlog meeting:

This is a meeting conducted by a BA or SM a week or 2 week before the release

In this meeting test engineer and developer come up with list all the pending stories

Which are not implemented as part of the current and previous release.

As a team we will re prioritize all the stories from the business point of view and decide how many stories can be in implemented in the current release and how many  stories can move to next upcoming sprint or releases.

Chickens and Pigs:
Chickens are the set of people who are not actually committed to the project and they will not do any contributed towards  the project where in they will get the business and get the work done by other people.
Ex: Customers, Stake holder and management team.

Pigs are the people who actually works on the project, committed to the project and contribute towards the project.
Ex: Test engg, Dev engg, Scrum master, BA etc.

WHAT IS A BURNDOWN CHART?

A burndown chart shows the amount of work that has been completed in an epic or sprint, and the total work remaining. Burndown charts are used to predict your team's likelihood of completing their work in the time available. They're also great for keeping the team aware of any scope creep that occurs.

Burndown charts are useful because they provide insight into how the team works. For example:

• If you notice that the team consistently finishes work early, this might be a sign that they aren't committing to enough work during sprint planning. 
• If they consistently miss their forecast, this might be a sign that they've committed to too much work.
• If the burndown chart shows a sharp drop during the sprint, this might be a sign that work has not been estimated accurately, or broken down properly.

Resume points:

Experience:

Worked on Agile Scrum Development process.

 Involved in Sprint planning meeting,Daily stand up meeting and Sprint Retrospective meeting.

Fresher:

Excellent knowledge on Agile Scrum Development process.

Very good knowledge on Sprint planning meeting.

Very good knowledge on Scrum meeting.

Very good knowledge on Sprint Retrospective meeting.

Agile vs Waterfall

Waterfall challenges

Poor quality

Poor visibility

Too risky

Can't handle change

The Agile Approach

 Quality improves because testing starts from day one.

Visibility improves because you are 1/2 way through the project when you have built 1/2 the features.

 Risk is reduced because you are getting feedback early, and

Customers are happy because they can make changes without paying exorbitant costs.

The Sprint Review

Purpose

Sprint Review Meeting is all about demonstrating the work done and gather the feedback and buy-in. At some places, the Sprint Review meeting is also known as Sprint Demo. Sprint Review Meeting is usually done at the end of the sprint but before the Sprint Retrospective meeting.

What are the disadvantages of the agile model?

Answer: Some of the disadvantages of using agile model are as follows:

a) Not easy to predict: When you encounter a large project, it is not easy to get an idea how much effort will it need

b) If the guidelines given by the customers is not properly grasped, then final outcome of the project is not customer satisfying

c) Sometimes focusing on design and documentation is not proper

d) High-level decisions are under the hand of Veterans, if not combined with non-experienced one, freshers have little scope to grasp proper knowledge.