Have a question?
Send enquiry
Message sent Close

News & Events

SAFe & Agile Leadership Training

Category: Agile Leadership

Does Your Test Automation Arrive Too Late?

Date of Release: January 29th, 2022
Reading Time: 02 mins

Leslie

Written by Leslie Brooks
linkedinicon

Traditional test automation arrives one release behind the new features – after the manual QA team has spent at least two weeks testing the new features, and long after the developers have moved on to other things.

This is too late to deliver real value; at a minimum the automation should be available as soon as the code is delivered to QA; ideally the automation should be delivered to the developers in-sprint. If it is delivered at the same time as the code, the manual QA team has a lot less work to do; if it is delivered in-sprint, the developers can run all of the tests before their changes are even merged into the Release branch.

Real World Examples

At General Motors I came in to help a test automation team that was doing things the traditional way – automating the manual test cases using Java and Selenium and delivering the automation one release behind the developers. A year later they became the first QA team in all of GM IT to deliver automated tests to the developers while they were still writing the code. For another website they went from delivering one release behind to delivering two or three days after the code was put into an integrated environment – and they went from using eight automation engineers to maintain and update the code, to one-half of an automation engineer, plus one manual QA person to run the tests.

At United Technologies I worked with a team of developers writing data science applications in Python; a year later they had transitioned from 100% manual testing to almost all automation, and were delivering the automated tests in-sprint. Because the developers were able to run fully automated regression tests plus fully automated tests for the new functionality before they opened a pull request, they quit delivering bugs. Code reviews were no longer about finding bugs; they were about ensuring that the code was clean, well designed, and easily maintained. That team went on to deliver just two bugs into Production over the next year!

How is this possible?

It requires a fundamental paradigm shift, from traditional narrative requirements to Specification by Example/BDD, and it requires a full-team effort:

  • The Product Owner and Business Analysts must learn how to write requirements that are more detailed and more explicit than traditional narrative requirements – Specification by Example says that all requirements must include concrete examples.
  • The Developers must learn how to collaborate with the Product Owners and BAs, to write the requirements together.
  • The QAs must learn how to help write the requirements, and how to automate early and reliably. This means that test automation code must be first-class code, not second-class code. At United Technologies the Developers reviewed every pull request opened by the QA team and used the same review standards as for production application code.

I can teach your teams how to do this; contact us and let’s schedule some time to talk.

Trending Posts

Creating a Culture of Accountability within Your Agile Team

Accountability serves as the vital link connecting tasks to objectives and aligning individuals across an organization.
Last updated on 13th July 2023

 

The QA Team Should NEVER Find a Bug!

Many companies use metrics to measure the performance of the Sales Team, the Developers, the QA Team, etc.
Last updated on 14th May 2023

 

Do You Want to Save $50,000 per Developer per Year?

A number of case studies have shown that a typical developer spends 30% to 40% of their time fixing bugs.
Last updated on 11th October 2021

 

Follow Us

Creating a Culture of Accountability within your Agile Team
July 13th, 2023
Writer: Stephen Otterstrom

Creating a Culture of Accountability within your Agile Team

Accountability serves as the vital link connecting tasks to objectives and aligning individuals across an organization.

Agile Leadership
October 11th, 2021
Writer: Leslie Brooks

Pytest-BDD vs. Behave

Love it or loath it, Python is the language of choice for most Data Scientists – so if the work is done in Python and you are writing the requirements in Gherkin, what tool should you use to automate testing?

Data Science
November 8th, 2021
Writer: Leslie Brooks

SBE BDD for Data Science

Data Science and Big Data are hot topics, and rightly so – companies can save huge sums, or dramatically increase sales, by analyzing the data that they already collect. Specification by Example is a great partner in this effort.

Be a part of SevenSparx community to enjoy free resources in your inbox!

Welcome to 7Sparx!

A Human-Centered Approach to Learning
Development and Training Solutions.

www.7sparx.com

Create Account

Welcome to 7Sparx!

A Human-Centered Approach to Learning
Development and Training Solutions.

www.7sparx.com

Log in


Lost Password?

Contact us

Let us know how we can help you.








    Farrah Koudsi
    Farrah is global training and organizational development consultant with over 20 years of experience in learning and development industry.  Farrah is highly experienced in developing world class training and learning programs coupled with extensive expertise in leadership and organizational management, and executive coaching. 

    Besides being a SAFe® Program Consultant, Farrah holds multiple industry certifications including certifications in International Teaching & Training, Leadership, Business Management, Leadership, and Instructional Design. Farrah is a skilled and passionate facilitator both in remote and in-person training environment. She is multilingual in English, French & Arabic.

    Farrah’s core competencies include: 

    • A Certified SAFe Program Consultant and Coach
    • Training Programs Development
    • eLearning Programs and Instructional Design
    • Learning Management Systems (LMS)
    • Organizational Development and Change Management

    Charlie Brown
    I love Agile! I was using agile thoughts throughout my 30 years career in software development and when I found Agile, I was amazed that they were saying some of the same things I was using. I began to see how they took the ideas that I had, short iterations and protecting the team and went far beyond my original ideas. I was agile before Agile existed. I began to train as a ScrumMaster and then an Agile Coach.

    As an Agile Coach SPC4, an Agile ScrumMaster, an ICAgile Certified Professional and a Innovation Games Certified Orange Belt Collaboration Architect, I specialize in helping people in different roles work better together. I want to help teams work faster and be better at responding to change whether they are remote/distributed or local. The ideal Agile Coach or ScrumMaster ( Scrum Master ) is described by many adjectives – especially Teacher, Mentor, Facilitator and Servant-Leader. I have used distributed tools to aid me in working with remote team members. My career and volunteer jobs have gone beyond teaching to forge these critical attributes into my personality so that I can help you build an all-star team.

    I have a strong background with working with people in different roles. I am a lifelong learner. I have a broad network of contacts. I love networking.
    Harsha Kondapalli
    Harsha is Scaled Agile Consultant and Enterprise Agile Coach with a tremendous passion to train and guide individual, teams and enterprises on Agile transformation. Harsha Kondapalli is a SPC – “SAFe Program Consultant” (SAFe SPC) for Lean Enterprises with extensive knowledge and experience.

    Harsha has been consulting for several enterprise customers including but not limited to Google, Apple, Citigroup, TIAA, Florida Blue and BMS. He has played multiple roles that include Enterprise Agile Coach and Release Train Engineer (RTE) for Product Development Initiatives.

    An agile enthusiast and evangelist with over 15 years in the Project Management field, Harsha has worked passionately to encourage and support the Organizations in fully embracing Agile methodologies for all his clients. 

    Harsha is a certified yoga teacher with 500 hours of teacher training, he Sia. fitness enthusiast and an ardent Indian classical music admirer.  He also has a Master’s Degree in Engineering specialized in aerospace industry.

    Jonathan Cavner
    Jonathan has 20 years of agile experience leading geographically diverse teams as a Scrum Master, Product Owner, Product Manager, Systems Architect and Release Train Engineer in the Fintech space. He specialized in Web Portals, eBanking and IAM (Identity and Access Management).   Jonathan has been instrumental in leading successful SAFe Agile transformations. With a background in developing eCommerce websites as a Java and .Net developer he brings a wide perspective and breadth of knowledge to the classroom and his consulting work.Certification

    SAFe® Practice Consultant (SPC), SAFe® Release Train Engineer (RTE), Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO), SAFe® Scrum Master (SSM).

    Authorized through Scaled Agile, Inc. to teach the following courses: Leading SAFe®, SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe® Scrum Master, SAFe® for Teams, SAFe® for Architects, Lean Portfolio Management.

    Leslie Brooks
    Leslie was trained by the author of Cucumber and has been teaching and coaching Specification by Example/BDD for almost ten years. He has introduced the methodology to teams at multiple companies, including Verizon, General Motors, and Raytheon Technologies.He loves teaching and coaching Business Analysts, Product Owners, Developers, and QAs in Specification by Example/BDD; He loves the tremendous improvements it can bring to the entire organization. He strongly believes that when we are able to write better requirements, we write better code (and fewer bugs), find and fix bugs faster, and deliver better quality code faster, then we feel an enormous sense of accomplishment.

    Specialties: Software QA, Software Quality Assurance, Test Strategy, Process Change, Process Transformation, Hardware Test, Linux, QA Manager, Cucumber, BDD, TDD, ATDD, Agile, Selenium, Test Automation, Python, Java, ML/AI, Deep Learning for software test

    Stephen Otterstrom

    Stephen is an accomplished Human Resources consultant with more than 20 years of experience in learning and development, onboarding, employee engagement, people and performance management and many other HR disciplines.   Much of Stephen’s career has been in hospitality.He started as a customer service agent and quickly moved into the learning and development world. In his role he opened new service centers in places like Guangzhou China and Cork Ireland. He supported properties with very low engagement and was able to help them become the highest engaged in the region. His final position in hospitality was as a regional learning manager for the Americas region for Hilton Worldwide.

    As an independent consultant Stephen now enjoys working with organizations around the globe and across multiple disciplines.  He currently provides coaching and training to newly minted leaders as well as C-Suite executives.  He loves helping organizations find the key to successful remote, hybrid or in person Teams. Stephen is fluent in Spanish and enjoys opportunities to provide multilingual training Whenever the opportunity presents itself.

    Since 2013 Stephen has held the Senior Professional of Human Resources certification or SPHR.  He was one of 19 contributors who helped right the first edition of A Guide to the Human Resources Body of Knowledge or (HRBok) Published by the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI).

    Viki Johnston
    Viki has dedicated more than 25 years of her career to professional training. She delivers excellent standards of soft skills classroom training, but it is her in-depth knowledge of customer service and business management that allows Viki to provide an exceptionally high level of learning facilitation and consultancy across a wide range of industries.Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she was employed by DHL, one of the largest courier companies in the world. During her 15 years of service, she worked in the areas of customer service, human resources and training and development, acquiring subject matter expertise across a number of disciplines.

    Viki also has extensive experience in managing and developing people in various supervisory and management roles, putting her in an ideal position to be able to relate to real business issues that her clients and delegates face daily.

    Viki is British and currently lives in Irvine, Southern California with her husband and daughter. She is a self-confessed lifelong learner with a passion for helping others experience “light bulb moments” and achieve their own goals.

    Right Menu IconAll Courses