Lean software testing is a testing method with the primary objective of building software that has improvement as its main purpose, as well as reducing risk. Their primary focal point is to discover waste and delays in any testing, and proffer a working solution to them. They have speed, quality and customer alignment at the back of the mind when developing a system or software. Here is quick introduction about Agile & lean testing & pdf tutorial.
Core values of lean
Lean other known as ‘Lean Manufacturing’ has some core values which give it an edge over any other software testing systems. The core values include:
- To eradicate waste
- Build in quality
- Create knowledge
- Defer commitment
- Fast delivery
- Respect for people
- Optimize the whole
Agile was actually built on the principles of Lean and that is the reason why it working and it’s quite reliable. Agile simply works on the premise that any system that must function effectively and be trusted must have workable and fool-proof principles.
Agile
Agile is a set of principles and values that are laid down in the Agile manifesto. The manifesto was formulated to checkmate the popular heavyweight methodologies that were in some ways hindering the ideal ways of doing software projects. The idea thing is to create software that is helpful to the customer.
The science behind LEAN is responsible for the smooth working that Agile values and principles enjoy today. Without the foundation of lean, there will be no Agile. Those principles are:
- Customer satisfaction should be of highest priority
- Changing requirements must be welcome
- Software should be delivered frequently
- Developers and business people need to cooperate daily
- Motivated people should be the pivot on which projects are built
- Face-to-face conversation is best
- Progress measured by working software
- Sustainable development speed
- Uninterrupted attention to technical excellence
- Teams that are self-organizing
- Regular reflection and adaptation
Any project that obeys these principles and values would be seen as being agile. For agile teams to be able to achieve a level of agility, certain preferred practices have to be followed. They include:
- Scrum or Kanban (sometimes, a mixture of both) for “Management Practices”.
- Extreme Programming needed for Technical Practices – new practices are gaining popularity, mostly from lean Startups like Continuous Deployment and Testing in Production
An agile team that is good would always settle for the management and technical practices that they have tested and are sure really works. But a bad team does not care about the workability of practice; they always think they can make things agile themselves.
Conclusion
There is hardly a clear demarcation between Lean and Agile as Agile working principles are based purely on the science of lean. Therefore, for any system that wants to be agile, it should be prepared to inculcate the principles and science that drive agility. Remember that customer is at the core of any testing system and the primary focus of the testing to come with a product that truly satisfies the yearnings of the customer.
