Agile Requirements Exploration with Tester Collaboration

I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Janet Gregory, co-author with Lisa Crispin of Agile Testing, on a workshop entitled “Agile Requirements Exploration with Tester Collaboration” at Agile 2011 Conference and STARWEST.

I believe that there is a lot of cross-fertilization benefit to be gained when people with skills in different disciplines collaborate closely toward shared ends. This is very true for the disciplines of testing and business analysis. The tester mind-set is crucial for verifying requirements. The business analysis mind-set is crucial for validating requirements.

By incorporating analysis practices into the testing discipline and testing practices into analysis, we collapse the traditional “V” model of verification and validation. This enables development teams to more efficiently and effectively identify the right requirements, and get the requirements right.

Agile practices, when done well, focus on delivering value and provide the freedom for the team to collaborate toward that shared end. As Mary Gorman and I have been saying, “it’s the goal, not the role.” By that, we mean that teams need to focus on delivering value each and every day, and not on who does what.

I hope you can join us for one of these events.

Resources:

• Acceptance Testing: Elicit and Validate Requirements for Success
• “Slicing Requirements for Agile Success“
• “It’s the Role, Not the Goal: The Value of Business Analysis in Scrum“
• Specification by Example