Testing in an Agile Environment

Andrew Bassett, Test Consultant at Agenor Technology explains how Testing expertise applied in an Agile project environment, provides real business value when managing change.

During the Covid pandemic when working from home was mandatory, one of our key clients introduced new ways of working in readiness for when permission was granted for people to return to the office.

In conjunction with the new ways of working a programme was initiated to deliver a new mobile app to help the return to the office. The programme used an Agile approach to deliver the new mobile app in staged roll out focusing on the largest offices in London first. The mobile app was to be a minimum viable product and provide the following features:

• Desk Booking
• Room Booking
• Wayfinding for navigation to desks, rooms and facilities
• Building & Facility Information (maps, catering details, wellbeing details)
• Local Transport Information
• Staff Directory
• Special Event Information
• Surveys & Polls
• Alerting (for additional comms)
• Single Sign-On Integration
• In addition to the mobile app an administrative system was to be delivered.

Agenor was responsible the following:

• Defining and gaining approval of the Test Strategy
• Defining and gaining approval of Test Plans
• Leading a team of UAT testers and business testers
• Design and execution of UAT tests
• Defect Management
• Creating and gaining approval of Test Completion Reports and Testing is Complete Report
• Governance of 3rd party vendor test deliverables

Technologies and Tools

The following technology and tools were used throughout the programme:

• AWS: The hosting platform.
• LeanKit: Used for the management of the sprint and backlog activities. Management of Risks, Issues, Assumptions & Dependencies.
• Jira: Used for the management of test execution and reporting.
• Mirroring360: Used for iPhone screen capturing.
• Federated SSO:   Single Sign On

Challenges & How They Were Overcome

1. Time: By far the biggest challenge was the limitation of time. Like everyone else in the country we did not have a fixed date for when the UK and regional governments would grant permission for returning to the workplace. However, we did know that the decision could happen at any time and was likely to be imminent, and the app had to be ready for when this decision was made. The mobile app can supply a vast amount of functionality, however not all of it was needed for day one. To overcome this challenge joint backlog reviews and sprint planning was critical to ensure that the sprints focused on the key functional requirements and what must be in place and working. In addition, extra hours and the occasional weekends were worked to complete the testing to ensure release goals were met and the delivery was on time.
2. Location of the team: Scheduling a suitable time for scrums, meetings and calls was challenging as the development team were base in Asia (6 hours head of the UK) and the vendor project management team were based in America (7 hours behind of the UK). The vendor was very flexible in their availability, however, to overcome this challenge we did have to arrange some meetings in the evening or very early in the morning.
3. Testing experience of other members of the team: The whole programme team worked together to fully support each other throughout the entirety of the programme. Many of the programme team were keen to support the test team whenever they could if the need occurred. However, some of the programme team did not have much experience in formal testing practices and processes. To overcome this challenge regular sessions were held to provide guidance on testing best practices. This included how a defect should be raised and what its contents should be, and the importance of capturing test evidence.
4. Test Data: During the testing of the app multiple building refurbishments were also taking place which involved new desk and meeting room layouts and naming. The challenge was that the data was constantly changing towards to the final configuration. One important aspect of the testing was to ensure that the maps, desks, and meeting rooms configuration were loaded into the environment correctly. To overcome this challenge working closely with the team providing the data was key. A particularly good working relationship was formed which ensured that this was successfully achieved.

Successes

For the Return-to-Office project outlined above Agenor’s testing ability played a vital part in ensuring the overall success of the project. As a result:

• All testing and test document approval was completed on time.
• The mobile app went live for the two largest London offices when approval was given to return to the office.
• Other regional offices were on-boarded shortly after and on time.

Conclusion

At Agenor, we know that Test professionals should be included and engaged as early as possible in any project life cycle and ideally at the initiation of the project, or during the requirements gathering phase. It can make a huge difference to the successful outcome of the project and the delivery of the intended business benefits.