Agile Process Maturity

Sep 16, 2016

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4.5 Applying the Principles

Implementing the agile ALM requires that you understand the agile values and principles and, more importantly, how to utilize them in practical terms. Technology projects require a deep understanding of exactly what the system should do and how it should work. These are important details that are typically expressed in terms of requirements. There are many different types of requirements, from system-level response time to functional usage, including navigation. Many professionals use epics⁷ and stories⁸ to describe requirements in high-level terms. Writing and maintaining a requirements document is often less than fruitful, with most requirements documents out of date even before they have been approved by the user. Agile takes a pragmatic approach to requirements management that focuses on working software instead of writing requirements documents that are often of limited value.

One very effective way to manage requirements is to supplement them with well-written test cases and test scripts. Test cases often contain exactly the same information that you might expect in a requirements document.

Test Cases for Trading Systems

Many years ago I requested that the testers work with me to write test cases for a major trading system in use on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The user representative was hesitant at first to focus on testing early in the software development process. I managed to persuade one of the senior representatives to give me one hour. During that session I simply asked him to say what he would test and what he expected the results to be. Within that first hour, this business expert actually picked up the phone and told the head of development that “what he had asked for was not what he needed.” I had caused the business expert to start actively thinking about how he was really going to use the system. The requirements phase had been long and thorough, yet the real breakthrough occurred when we started writing test cases. Well-written tests can be very effective at supplementing, and even completing, requirements descriptions that are often incomplete because all of the usage details may not be initially understood.

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