Agile Software Development practices are now so widespread that they are no longer considered ‘extreme’. However, many organisations and agile teams still struggle with how to carry out successful testing on an agile development project.

This tutorial introduces the key principles of Agile development with a particular focus on quality and testing issues. We illustrate why agile projects present a radical shift from traditional ‘waterfall’ project plans and divisions of labour, and show why this requires a compete re-think of the way software is tested. We explain what it means for a project to be truly ‘test-driven’, where the testers take a ‘lead’ rather than a ‘lag’ role in the development cycle. Delegates will learn how collaboration, fast feedback and a combination of automated and exploratory testing techniques help deliver high-quality, thoroughly tested software, on-time.

Topics to be covered include:

• Why agile development is different
• Agile Testing Strategies – the importance of fast feedback
• Test-Driven Development
• An outline Agile Testing process
• Writing Acceptance Criteria for Agile Stories
• The Agile Game – understanding agile by example
• Overview of popular open-source test tools such as xUnit, FIT and FitNesse

The tutorial enhances learning by blending theory with practice in an interactive and stimulating way. Spaces are limited to 12 delegates.