08. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Write Logical Acceptance Tests
During release planning meeting. Capture acceptance criteria and immediately add the as logical test cases to the PBI. It will help the team to understand, clarify the discussion and more important for this topic, it helps testers be involved, and be important at the early stages of the software cycle.
Within VS11 | TFS11 this is very easy to accomplish:
- add the PBI to the backlog.
- add logical test cases, from the backlog item work item. and only add the test case title.
- Start planning and execute the sprint
- open Microsoft Test Manager, add a test plan for the current sprint.
- Add the Backlog items as Requirement Suites to the plan and see the test cases listed in the suite, ready to add test steps.
This is a very small tip, but is very useful to get testing involved in a sprint (see tip 01).
Past Tips:
01. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint - The Team and Activities
02. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Regression Test Sets
03. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Test Automation
04. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Undone Backlog Item
05. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – No Double, Triple Testing
06. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – PBI Implementation Sequence
07. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Risk and Business driven Tests
Next Tips:
09. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Test Tasks on the Board
10. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Done
11. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint - The Customer Test Team
12. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – The Test Branch
…
…
07. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Risk and Business driven Tests
I really like the mindset “no risk, no test”. So, when there isn’t any business risk, there aren't any tests and is it easy to fit testing in a sprint. More realistic do a good risk analysis on your product backlog items before start writing thousands of tests. Also in scrum is risk an important attribute.
The release plan establishes the goal of the release, the highest priority Product Backlog, the major risks, and the overall features and functionality that the release will contain.
Products are built iteratively using Scrum, wherein each Sprint creates an increment of the product, starting with the most valuable and riskiest.
Product Backlog items have the attributes of a description, priority, and estimate. Priority is driven by risk, value, and necessity. There are many techniques for assessing these attributes.
from the scrum guide
Within the TMap test approach product risk analysis is an important technique. Determine risk analyses are part of the proposed activities in the Master Test Plan of TMap: ‘Analysing the product risks’. It not only supports the Product Owner to make the right decisions it also the Team benefits in a later stage, this information is invaluable while defining the right test case design techniques for the Product Backlog Item.
“The focus in product risk analysis is on the product risks, i.e. what is the risk to the organization if the product does not have the expected quality? ”
www.TMap.net
Having full product risk analysis for every Product Backlog Item during the Release Planning meeting is slightly overdone, but the major risks should be found. Determine product risks at this stage will also provide input for the Definition of Done list.
TMap Product Risk Analyses
Within the Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 Process Template Product Backlog Items are written down in the Work Item Type ‘Product Backlog Item’. This Work Item Type hasn’t got a specific field for risk classifications. Adding a risk field is preferable (TFS Powertools makes this an easy task) so you can query on this property, or you can make the risk analyses a more product generic property.
TFS Scrum Product Backlog Item
The flow with risk analyzing, classification, discussion and test design with the Product Owner can look like the diagram below.
But again most important for fitting testing in a sprint, know the risks use test design techniques to cover the risk and only write useful test cases.
Post partly taken from previous posts:
Past Tips:
01. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint - The Team and Activities
02. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Regression Test Sets
03. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Test Automation
04. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Undone Backlog Item
05. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – No Double, Triple Testing
06. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – PBI Implementation Sequence
Next Tips:
08. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Write Logical Acceptance Tests
09. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Test Tasks on the Board
10. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – Done
11. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint - The Customer Test Team
12. Getting Testing Done in the Sprint – The Test Branch
…
…
Create a TFS11 on Azure account with Clemens and get a 3 minute quick start explanation … #techdaysnl
TechDays in Den Haag, Netherlands
TFS11 Service is the brand new Team Foundation Service on Azure, it makes it very simple to have your own Team Foundation Server. But, there are some new concepts in TFS11.
In a 3 minute face to face session with me, we create a TFS11 on Azure account and you get an explanation of these new concepts so you can start using it and be productive immediately.
Look for this laptop at the Sogeti boot or ATE area at the TechDays in Den Haag, Netherlands.
Thursday only.
Decks: TFService Basic and Advanced
Decks I used Yesterday for a TFService presentation. Normally it is a demo only presentation, but a scheduled maintenance made me use them 
(see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tfservice/ for the schedule). Lucky me I have them, now you have hem too…
First presentation (second in the series, first session was about scrum 101) is some general usages of TFService and how it supports an agile way of working.
Second deck (fourth in the sessions series, third one was about how we use it in real projects) is about how we solved some usages challenges like multiple backlogs, bug backlog, testing etc.
Some more reading:
- http://www.clemensreijnen.nl/post/2011/10/09/Teams-in-VS11.aspx
- http://www.clemensreijnen.nl/post/2011/10/10/Teams-in-Visual-Studio-11-feature-teams-and-backlogs.aspx
- http://www.clemensreijnen.nl/post/2011/10/12/Teams-in-Visual-Studio-11-CTP-the-Bug-Backlog.aspx
- Teams and TFS Groups in TFS11, the backlog, board and security settings.