Workshop: Solving testing problems through a set of Principles

I attended Agile Testing Days Conference in Germany this week and had a space for a talk & workshop slot. If you want to find out more about my Testing Principles, then here’s a list of my blog posts:

Principle 1 — Risk https://fishouthebox.medium.com/principle-1-looking-at-the-bigger-picture-with-risk-46feddd8f827

Principle 2 — Purpose https://fishouthebox.medium.com/principle-2-purpose-why-are-we-building-this-product-and-who-are-we-building-it-for-cd765f020e91

Principle 3- Empathy https://fishouthebox.medium.com/testing-principle-3-empathy-fc63b0680793

Principle 4 — Role https://fishouthebox.medium.com/testing-principle-4-role-e8f98ceded02

Principle 5 — Visibility https://fishouthebox.medium.com/testing-principle-5-visibility-3856de5c1e4b

Principle 6 — Learning https://fishouthebox.medium.com/testing-principle-6-learning-6c082e78a23

This blog is aimed to share how I ran the workshop and to inspire you to think about creating your own Testing Principles within your workplace to help guide you when making a decision or considering a matter.

The outcomes of the workshop were:

1. Explain the testing problems you are experiencing at your workplace
2. Create your own testing principles to help guide you
3. Generate fresh ideas on how to drive value by using a set of testing principles.

Part one — Testing Problems.

Exercise 1: Have you experienced Melissa’s Testing Problems? Some examples below.

• We do not understand why we are building the product or who it is for, so we end up building the wrong thing!
• We do not understand what is happening in our production environments
• Stakeholders push for more automation and less “manual testers”
• Non functional requirements are considered too late

Exercise 2: Re-group — How did you find the exercise? How many problems have you personally encountered?

Exercise 3: Reflection: What problems are you currently experiencing in your workplace?

Part two: Testing Principle

Exercise 4: What do you think of Melissa’s Testing Principles?

Exercise 5: Regroup — How did you find the exercise?

Exercise 6: What would your own testing principles be? Re-Use mine or make up your own. Remembering a principle is something that you believe is true, believe is correct or things you must do (professional guidelines).

Part three:

Exercise 7: Reflection piece — How are you going to bring your testing principles to life? What actions are you going to take when you get back to work?

If you have any questions or need help in running through this, then give me a shout on LinkedIn.