Ash Winter - Tested to Death

I have to admit that when I arrived at the January 2016 Agile Yorkshire event, I was nervous. A first timer, non-developer, taking notes…what was I thinking? Luckily, there was a warm welcome, plenty of friendly faces, and the speakers definitely provided some food for thought. First up on the night was test consultant, Ash Winter, who thinks testing is great. That is, testing that delivers value and is suited to the context. Is a full test suite necessary for a product at beta? The presentation showed how a failure can be the best source of learning. For anyone not familiar with the pain of failure there was a photo of a sad puppy – point made! So what suggestions did Ash give? It’s important to have an evolving strategy and engage regularly. Ash also mentioned the importance of thinking small and having different tests at different testing levels (Testing Pyramid). Another great suggestion was to pair early especially with developers and write the tests first (Test Driven Development). Consider that tests have a life-cycle and every test must eventually die. Ensure the tests serve you and not the other way round. Write-up by Emma Murphy.