How Testers Can Help Drive Agile Development

Although some experts say that testers are not needed in an agile development environment, Lisa Crispin knows differently. Testers want to make sure customers get what they need; they look at the "big picture" and work to ensure the best experience for the user. Unfortunately, even in the agile development world, business needs and the users’ experience often are disconnected from the delivered software. Professional testers can help agile developers deliver what stakeholders want-the first time. Lisa describes how she uses tests cases to create a common language that business customers, users, and developers all understand. She explains the techniques for eliciting examples to define features and describes how to turn examples into executable tests. These tests define the scope of a feature, making it easier for everyone to envision how the feature should look, feel, and work. Lisa also shows how to write tests that guide programmers toward delivering well-designed, well-tested systems.

• How tests can be the common language for business
• Elicit examples of features and convert them into executable tests
• Use tests to define the scope of features for development