Ensemble Testing - 10 Years of Mindshare

Tapahtuma on englanninkielinen / Ohjelmistotestaus ry

Online broadcast event - talk by Maaret Pyhäjärvi on the topic of Ensemble Testing. This is a mechanism of whole teams working together. Enrollments on Ohjelmistotestaus ry LinkedIn page. Monthly events are in Finnish every second month, and in English every second month and are open to anyone interested in Testing. 
 

Ten years ago I started a journey of facing one of my personal demons: I did not like programming, I loved system testing. Not manual testing, but exploratory testing. However, I learned about a practice of ensemble (mob) testing, and I volunteered to sit with my all-developers team and program together using one computer and taking turns on the keyboard. Since then, I have been in a lot of ensemble testing sessions, and facilitated even more of them. It has become my primary way of learning and teaching for both programming and testing.

Ensemble testing - a group testing activity utilizing one computer - creates mindshare by giving voice of the knowledge in the group of individuals on a shared task with a testing perspective. It makes a great mechanism not just for passing knowledge but also for building habits and transferring skills. Working on the same thing, at the same time, in the same space and at the same computer allows testers to contribute more and be appreciated for their contributions. Lessons specific to skillsets rub in both ways, leaving everyone better off after the experience. The task at hand can involve programming, but also it can start as a typical recon exploratory testing session, building a plan as we work with an application.

This talk shares my core lessons of ensemble testing, both as a participant and a facilitator. It gives you guidance on how and why to get started, how to avoid the common pitfalls and how to create varied experiences of testing beyond the first day of ensembling.