The Role of Testers in an Agile Software Development Life Cycle within B2B Companies

105 Pages·2013·1.5 MB·English

by  Dwayne Thomas

Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program:
Applied Information Management
and the Graduate School of the
University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the degree of
Master of Science

The Role of Testers in
CAPSTONE REPORT
an Agile Software
Development Life Cycle

within B2B Companies

Dwayne Thomas
University of Oregon
Statistical Data Quality Assurance Analyst
Applied Information
Rentrak Corporation Management
Program

February 2013 Continuing Education
1277 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1277
[phone]

Approved by

________________________________________________________
Dr. Linda F. Ettinger
Senior Academic Director, AIM Program
Running head: TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 1

The Role of Testers in an Agile Software Development Life Cycle
within B2B Companies

Dwayne Thomas

Rentrak Corporation
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 2
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 3

Abstract

High software quality is a very important outcome of software development practices for business
customers (Mairiza, Zowghi, & Nurmuliani, 2010). This annotated bibliography is developed for
software testers who want to improve the quality of software and customer satisfaction in the Agile
development cycle. Selected references published between 2006 to 2013 are reviewed to examine
software quality requirements, appropriate amounts of software tester readiness, test planning,
verification of business test cases, and additional testing activities.

Keywords: Agile, software quality, testing, business-to-business
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 4
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 5

Table of Contents

Abstract.............................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction........................................................................................................................ 9
Problem ............................................................................................................................. 9
Purpose ……………......................................................................................................... 11
Significance ...................................................................................................................... 12
Audience ........................................................................................................................... 13
Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 13
Delimitations. ................................................................................................................... 14
Focus ................................................................................................................................. 14
Exclusion .......................................................................................................................... 14
Timeframe ......................................................................................................................... 14
Sources ……………………...............................................................................................14
Preview of the Reading and Organization Plan Preview .............................................. 14
Reading plan ……….......................................................................................................... 14
Organization plan ............................................................................................................. 15
Definitions .......................................................................................................................... 16
Research Parameters ........................................................................................................ 19
Search Strategy ................................................................................................................ 19
Key Words ……................................................................................................................ 19
Reference Collection Procedures .................................................................................... 20
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 6

Documentation Procedures ............................................................................................. 20
Evaluation Criteria ……………...................................................................................... 21
Reading plan ...................................................................................................................... 22
Organization plan ............................................................................................................... 24
Annotated Bibliography .................................................................................................... 26
The Role of Software Testers in Agile Software Teams in a b2b Context …................ 26
Appropriate Amounts of Software Tester Readiness and Planning .............................. 46
Testing Activities in Addition to Verifying Business Test Cases .................................... 65
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 84
The Role of Software Testers in Agile Software Teams in a b2b Context ..................... 87
Appropriate Amounts of Software Tester Readiness and Planning .............................. 89
Testing Activities in Addition to Verifying Business Test Cases .................................... 91
References ............................................................................................................................ 94
TESTERS IN AN AGILE B2B 7

List of Figures
Figure 1. Testing progression diagram ……………………………………………… 28
Figure 2. Achievements, challenges, and the theoretical goals (dreams) of software testers and
researchers…..……………………………………………………………. 48
Figure 3. Testing quadrants ………………………………………………………….. 51
Figure 4. Interaction of roles ………………………………………………………… 52
Figure 5. Independent testing throughout the agile development lifecycle ……....….. 68
Figure 6. Technical debt quadrants …………………………………………………... 70
Figure 7. Phases of agile software-development ……………………………………. 76
List of Tables
Table 1. The Five Most Commonly Considered NFRs ……………………………… 36
Table 2. Indicator questions for test automation ……………………………………... 57
Table 3. Defect quantities of collocated and distributed teams and their software lines of code
………………………………………………………………………….….. 77
Table 4. Categories of knowledge used for recognizing failures in software ………… 80
Table 5. Coding Table: Findings in the selected references …………………………. . 86