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- Now we're gonna talk about how to

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apply your testing mindset.

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We want to avoid the waterfall
style of big design up front.

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At the same time, we
want to know the features

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that the business needs and
how they should be developed.

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We just don't want to go
into quite so much detail.

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We're going to apply our
testing mindset to help create

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the shared understanding of
features before coding begins.

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Small differences and assumptions

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can cause big misperceptions.

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You've probably seen the pictures
of the classic tire swing

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metaphor where different
members of the team

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have a different vision
of that swing in the tree.

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They might have a rope hanging
from branches on either side

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of the trunk or three
ropes instead of two.

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We have to collaborate to
build shared understandings

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so that we really know that
what we wanted was a tire

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hanging from a rope in that tree.

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We apply our testing mindset
in all of the meetings

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that we go to, backlog refinement,

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story readiness workshops,
iteration planning meetings.

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A testing superpower that we
have is to bring the right

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people together for a discussion.

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Iteration planning meetings,
for example, can be frustrating

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if people didn't start out
kind of on the same page

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with their understanding about the stories

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that we're about to discuss.

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Try pre-planning meetings
with fewer people.

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Janet and I have a concept
we call the Power of Three

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where we get a product owner
or other business stakeholder,

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a developer, and a tester
together to talk about

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a story or a feature.

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George Dinwiddie calls us the
Three Amigos and it's more of

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an optimal-sized group for communication.

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We might bring in an
additional person or two

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such as a designer or a database expert,

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whoever we need, but not
a huge group of people.

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We can ask business stakeholders

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for business rules and examples.

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We definitely want them to
give us concrete examples.

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And we want to focus on
the values of the customer.

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What's the goal of each story?

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Leave the edge cases.

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We can always think of
boundary conditions to test,

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edge cases to test, but depending
on the risks in the domain

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where we're working, we can
probably leave those for later.

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The outcomes of these small
meetings can get the larger

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team on the same page to do more planning.

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If you're a new team,
you might try to bring in

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a trained facilitator to
help you with things like

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specification workshops
to do these activities

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and have these conversations.

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Another superpower that testers have

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is their questioning ability.

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When we start each new feature
or new release or project,

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by thinking about testing,
how we're gonna test it,

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that's how we build quality in.

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We avoid defects, we avoid
unnecessary bling, scope creep.

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We can start with a minimal
thin slice of functionality

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that we can get feedback
from our end users

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and from our business and improve
our product incrementally.

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We avoid wasting time
delivering software that doesn't

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actually solve the business problem.

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We're trying to solve
problems for the business,

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for the customer, and for the end user.

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Let's go back to our case study

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that we're using for examples here.

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We're again going to use the pet salon.

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The pet salon's website is pretty basic.

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Currently it just describes
the services available

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and some information about
the groomers and times

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of opening, things like that.

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And so currently, customers
have to call to book

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their appointments, which
interrupts the groomer's work,

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and they want to save that time.

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So, what the pet salon wants
is some basic way for dog

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and cat owners to book
basic services online

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and get an email confirmation
about their appointment.

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So, as the delivery team, we
got together with our customers

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at the pet salon and did a story map.

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This is something we
learned from Jeff Patton,

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who has a wonderful book
on user story mapping.

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It's a great way to think
about the capabilities

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that you just really wanted.

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So we got everyone together
and started thinking about

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what would our users do
when they're thinking about

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booking an appointment for their pet.

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It allows us to look at how
we can give our customers

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what they want and still meet our goals,

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such as bringing in revenue.

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And it helps us decide what we really want

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to get done first.

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How can we prioritize the features,

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how can we divide up our releases?

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It also allows us to start
testing because we're questioning

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early, do we really need this feature,

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what problem would this
particular thing solve,

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who's going to be using this,

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what would happen if?

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These sort of what-if questions.

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It's a powerful framework for
a company wide conversation,

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getting everybody in the
room talking about it.

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And when we did our story
map, one of the benefits was

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we got these personas of
types of users for our system,

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such as Sally the salon
owner, Gigi the groomer,

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or Cindy the cat owner.

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So there are a lot of different
benefits that come out

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of this that help us get
that shared understanding.

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And we can take this and
decide what's the initial slice

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that we would like to release,
what's our minimum viable

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or valuable product that
we could deliver and get

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feedback from our customers?

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Again, we're focusing on
the value to the customer.

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Right now we're not worried about

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how we will implement the feature.

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We are thinking about
who's going to implement it

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and who's going to use it.

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And it doesn't have to
be perfect at this point,

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we're just starting to have
conversations and thinking about

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how we can build incrementally.

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For example, the salon has a
lot of service options to offer

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and we're just gonna start out
by having a hard-coded list

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on our website.

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Later, we want to make that
more dynamic so that we pull

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those options out from a database.

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But, for now, we don't think
we need that just to get

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feedback on how the website works.

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We're focusing on the most
valuable capabilities first,

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actually booking the appointment.

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We encourage you to learn
more about story mapping

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and give it a try.

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Again, great way to get
shared understanding.