Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development: Better Software Through Collaboration

Description

Praise for Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development

Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development tells a tale about three fictive project stakeholders as they use agile techniques to plan and execute their project. The format works well for the book; this book is easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to apply.

 - Johannes Brodwall, Chief Scientist, Steria Norway

Agile development, some say, is all about pairing, and, yes, I'm a believer in the power of pairing. After reading this book, however, I became a fan of the 'triad' - the customer or business analyst + the developer + the tester, who work collaboratively on acceptance tests to drive software development. I've written some patterns for customer interaction and some patterns for testing and I like what Ken Pugh has chosen to share with his readers in this down-to-earth, easy-to-read book. It's a book full of stories, real case studies, and his own good experience. Wisdom worth reading!

 - Linda Rising, Coauthor of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

The Agile Manifesto, Extreme Programming, User Stories, and Test-Driven Development have enabled tremendous gains in software development; however, they're not enough. The question now becomes 'How can I ensure clear requirements, correct implementation, complete test coverage, and more importantly, customer satisfaction and acceptance?' The missing link is acceptance as defined by the customer in their own domain language. Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development is the answer.

 - Bob Bogetti, Lead Systems Designer, Baxter Healthcare

Ken Pugh's Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development shows you how to integrate essential requirements thinking, user acceptance tests and sounds, and lean-agile practices, so you can deliver product requirements correctly and efficiently. Ken's book shows you how table-driven specification, intertwined with requirements modeling, drives out acceptance criteria. Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development is an essential guide for lean-agile team members to define clear, unambiguous requirements while also validating needs with acceptance tests.

 - Ellen Gottesdiener, EBG Consulting, www.ebgconsulting.com, Author of Requirements by Collaboration and The Software Requirements Memory Jogger

If you are serious about giving Agile Testing a chance and only have time to read one book, read this one.

 - David Vydra, http://testdriven.com

This book provides clear, straightforward guidance on how to use business-facing tests to drive software development. I'm excited about the excellent information in this book. It's a great combination of the author's experiences, references to other experts and research, and an example project that covers

many angles of ATDD. A wide range of readers will learn a lot that they can put to use, whether they work on projects that call themselves lean or agile or simply want to deliver the best possible software product.

 - Lisa Crispin, Agile Tester, ePlan Services, Inc., Author of Agile Testing

Within the framework of Acceptance Test-Driven-Development (ATDD), customers, developers, and testers collaborate to create acceptance tests that thoroughly describe how software should work from the customer's viewpoint. By tightening the links between customers and agile teams, ATDD can significantly improve both software quality and developer productivity.

This is the first start-to-finish, real-world guide to ATDD for every agile project participant. Leading agile consultant Ken Pugh begins with a dialogue among a customer, developer, and tester, explaining the what, why, where, when, and how of ATDD and illuminating the experience of participating in it.

Next, Pugh presents a practical, complete reference to each facet of ATDD, from creating simple tests to evaluating their results. He concludes with five diverse case studies, each identifying a realistic set of problems and challenges with proven solutions.

Coverage includes

* How to develop software with fully testable requirements

* How to simplify and componentize tests and use them to identify missing logic

* How to test user interfaces, service implementations, and other tricky elements of a software system

* How to identify requirements that are best handled outside software

* How to present test results, evaluate them, and use them to assess a project's overall progress

* How to build acceptance tests that are mutually beneficial for development organizations and customers

* How to scale ATDD to large projects

CONTENTS:

Introduction 1

Part I: The Tale

Chapter 1: Prologue 9

Ways to Develop Software 9

  One Way 9

  Another Way 9

  The Difference 10

The Importance of Acceptance Tests 10

System and Team Introduction 12

  The System 12

  The People 13

Summary 14

Chapter 2: Lean and Agile 15

The Triad and Its Units 15

Post-Implementation Tests 17

Quick Feedback Better Than Slow Feedback 18

Preimplementation Tests 19

Lean and Agile Principles 20

Summary 21

Chapter 3: Testing Strategy 23

Types of Tests 23

Where Tests Run 25

Test Facets 26

  Control and Observation Points 27

  New Test Is a New Requirement 27

Summary 28

Chapter 4: An Introductory Acceptance Test 29

A Sample Business Rule 29

Implementing the Acceptance Tests 31

  Test Script 32

  Test User Interface 33

  xUnit Test 34

  Automated Acceptance Test 35

  An Overall Test 36

Testing Process 37

Summary 37

Chapter 5: The Example Project 39

The Charter 39

  Objectives 40

  Project Acceptance Tests 41

High-Level Requirements 43

  Features 43

  Feature Acceptance Criteria 45

Summary 46

Chapter 6: The User Story Technique 47

Stories 47

  Features into Stories 48

  Roles 49

  Role Attributes 49

  Persona 50

  Stories for Roles 51

  Story Acceptance Criteria 52

  Acceptance Tests Determine Size 53

  Customer Terms 54

INVEST Criteria 55

Summary 56

Chapter 7: Collaborating on Scenarios 57

Use Cases from User Stories 57

  Simple Use Case 59

  Exceptions and Alternatives 60

  Acceptance Tests 63

  Documentation 63

Story Map 63

Conceptual Flow 65

Communication 66

Summary 68

Chapter 8: Test Anatomy 69

Triad Creates Tests 69

Test Context 70

Test Structure 71

  Calculation Table 73

  Data Table 74

  Action Table 75

Tests with Example Values 76

  Requirements Revised 77

  Acceptance Test Revised 78

Test with Values in Text 79

When and Where Tests Are Run 80

Summary 81

Chapter 9: Scenario Tests 83

Tests for Exception Scenarios 83

Tests for Business Rules 87

Cross-Story Issues 88

Don't Automate Everything 89

Multi-Level Tests 90

User Interface Tests 93

Check the Objectives 93

Summary 94

Chapter 10: User Story Breakup 95

Acceptance Tests Help Break Up Stories 95

Business Rule Tests 96

A Story with a Business Rule 100

Summary 101

Chapter 11: System Boundary 103

External Interfaces 103

  More Details 107

External Interface Tests 108

  Component Tests 108

  Test Doubles and Mocks 111

What Is Real? 112

Story Map of Activities 113

Summary 114

Chapter 12: Development Review 115

The Rest of the Story 115

  Usability Testing 116

  Separating State from Display 116

  Quality Attribute Tests 118

  Workflow Tests 119

Deployment Plans 120

From Charter to Deliverable 120

Summary 121

Part II: Details

Chapter 13: Simplification by Separation 125

Complex Business Rules 125

  Simplify by Separating 126

  The Simplified Rule 128

Rental History 128

Summary 130

Chapter 14: Separate View from Model 131

Decouple the User Interface 131

Decoupling Simplifies Testing 136

Summary 136

Chapter 15: Events, Responses, and States 137

Events and an Event Table 137

States and State Transitions 139

Internal State or External Response 142

  Transient or Persistent States 144

  A Zen Question 144

Summary 144

Chapter 16: Developer Acceptance Tests 145

Component Acceptance Tests 145

  Field Display Tests 145

  Tabular Display Tests 147

Summary 151

Chapter 17: Decouple with Interfaces 153

Tests for a Service Provider 153

  The Interface 153

  Quality Attribute Tests 155

  Comparing Implementations 155

Separating User Interface from Service 157

  Separation of Concerns 158

Reusable Business Rules 158

Summary 159

Chapter 18: Entities and Relationships 161

Relationships 161

  Entities and Relationships 161

  Multiple Relationships 163

  Alternative Representations 166

Summary 166

Chapter 19: Triads for Large Systems 167

Large Systems 167

When a Customer Test May Not Be Required 169

  Data Conversion 170

  Database Conversions 170

What If There Are No Tests? 170

  Legacy Systems 172

Summary 173

Part III : General Issues

Chapter 20: Business Capabilities, Rules, and Value 177

Business Capabilities 177

Scenario Handling 178

Business Rules Exposed 179

A Different Business Value 179

Summary 181

Chapter 21: Test Presentation 183

Customer Understood Tables 183

Table Versus Text 185

Specifying Multiple Actions 185

Complex Data 187

Custom Table Forms 188

Summary 189

Chapter 22: Test Evaluation 191

Test Facets 191

  Understandable to Customers 191

  Spell Checked 192

  Idempotent 192

  Not Fragile 192

Test Sequence 193

  Workflow Tests 193

Test Conditions 194

  Separation of Concerns 194

  Test Failure 195

  Test Redundancy 196

No Implementation Issues 197

Points to Remember 197

Summary 198

Chapter 23: Using Tests for Other Things 199

Uses of Acceptance Tests 199

  Degree of Doneness 199

  Estimation Aid 200

  Breaking Down Stories 200

  Developer Stories 200

Tests as a Bug Report 201

  Root Cause Analysis 201

  Production Bugs 202

  Regression Testing 202

Summary 202

Chapter 24: Context and Domain Language 205

Ubiquitous Language 205

Two Domains 207

Summary 208

Chapter 25: Retrospective and Perspective 209

Recap 209

  The Process 210

  Testing Layers 210

  The Tests 211

  Communication 212

What's the Block? 212

  Monad 212

  Unavailable Customer 213

  Change 213

  Risks 214

Benefits 214

Summary 215

Part IV Case Studies

Chapter 26: Case Study: Retirement Contributions 219

Context 219

The Main Course Test 220

  Setup 220

  Event 221

  Expected 221

  Implementation Issues 222

  Separation of Concerns 222

Business Value Tracking 223

One Exception 223

  Event 223

  Expected 224

Another Exception 225

  Event 225

  Expected 225

Two Simultaneous Exceptions 226

  Event 226

  Expected 227

The Big Picture 227

Event Table 228

State Transition Table 228

Summary 230

Chapter 27: Case Study: Signal Processing 231

It's Too Loud 231

Sound Levels 231

Developer Tests 233

Summary 233

Chapter 28: Case Study: A Library Print Server 235

The Context 235

A Workflow Test 236

Summary 241

Chapter 29: Case Study: Highly Available Platform 243

Context for Switching Servers 243

Test for Switching Servers 244

Test for Technical Rule 246

Summary 248

Part V : Technical Topics

Chapter 30: How Does What You Do Fit with ATDD? 251

Test Platforms 251

Internal Design from Tests 252

Device Testing 254

Starting with User Interfaces 255

Black Box Testing 255

Unit Testing 256

Summary 256

Chapter 31: Test Setup 257

A Common Setup 257

Some Amelioration 259

Test Order 260

Persistent Storage Issues 260

Summary 261

Chapter 32: Case Study: E-Mail Addresses 263

Context 263

Breaking Down Tests 264

  Local-Part Validation 265

  Domain Tests 266

  Disallowed Domain Tests 268

  Test to Ensure Connection 269

  Verification Test 269

Summary 270

Part VI : Appendices

Appendix A: Other Issues 273

Context 273

Customer Examples 274

  Fuzzy Acceptance Tests 274

  Acceptance Test Detail 275

Requirements and Acceptance Tests 275

  Documenting Requirements and Tests 276

  Decoupling Requirements 276

  Separation of Issues 276

Testing Systems with Random Events 277

The Power of Three 277

Summary 278

Appendix B: Estimating Business Value 279

Business Value 279

Developer Stories 281

Summary 282

Appendix C: Test Framework Examples 283

The Examples 283

Fit Implementation 284

  Setup 284

  Check-Out CD 284

  Check-In 286

  Category-Based Rental Fees 287

Slim - Table Style 288

  Header 288

  Setup 288

  Check-Out CD 288

  Check-In 290

  Category-Based Rental Fees 291

Slim - Cucumber Style 291

  Setup 291

  Check-Out CD 292

  Check-In CD 292

  Scenario Library 292

  Category-Based Rental Fees 294

Robot 295

  Setup 295

  Check-Out CD 295

  Check-In CD 296

  Category-Based Rental Fees 296

Cucumber 296

  Check-Out CD 297

  Check-In CD 297

  Category-Based Rental Fees 297

Test Frameworks 298

Summary 298

Appendix D: Tables Everywhere 299

User Interface Tests with Tables 299

Requirement Tables 301

  Another Table 302

Quality Attribute Requirements 303

Data Tables 304

Summary 304

Appendix E: Money with ATDD 305

The Context 305

The Original Tests 306

The Acceptance Test Approach 307

Summary 310

Appendix F: Exercises 311

Calculator 311

  Create Some Tests 313

More Exercises 313

  Sam's CD Rental 314

  Triangle 314

  File Copying Exercise 314

References 315

Epilogue 323

Index 333