Executable requirements neatly combine two important Agile practices:
user stories and acceptance testing. They enhance communication, ease following the number of running tested features during an iteration, and work as regression tests in future iterations. This workshop gives an introduction to this important process and also shows how it is used in developing a realistic system. Participants can also join the fun and get real hands-on experience.
Requirements in general, and executable requirements in particular, are important for all project members (customers, developers, testers, …) and this workshop has something to offer to all these stakeholders. The workshop is suitable for both practitioners and beginners. Beginners will get a deep introduction of executable requirements and see how the process works. Practitioners can deepen their knowledge, share their experiences and learn from others.
Workshop starts with a short introduction of executable requirements and Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) process. The ATDD workflow, Discuss–Develop–Deliver, is explained to provide frame for rest of the session. Additionally Robot Framework, the tool that is used to automate acceptance test cases, is briefly introduced.
The hands-on part starts by explaining an existing, partially complete application which will be developed further during a series of mini-iterations. Existing acceptance tests and the continuous integration environment are introduced to show how development has been conducted earlier. During the development iterations the participants collaborate to produce new executable requirements for the system. They also automate the requirements using Robot Framework together with the organizers. The organizers act as developers and are responsible for implementing the new features.
Pekka Klärck is an Agile tester, developer, and selfemployed consultant from Finland. He has ten years experience from testing and test automation, and he has spent the better half of that decade in Agile projects. He is a frequent speaker in conferences and has lately presented in Agile 2009, XP 2009, Agile Testing Days 2009, Scan-Agile 2009, and EuroPython 2009 conferences. Being the original author and the lead developer of Robot Framework he knows the framework and the ecosystem around it extremely well.
Juha Rantanen works as an Agile testing consultant at Reaktor, developing Robot Framework and helping customer teams in organizing their testing and test automation efforts. Juha has studied acceptance test driven development (ATDD) in his Master’s Thesis and he has spoken in XP 2009 and Scan-Agile 2009 conferences.
Janne Härkönen works as an Agile testing consultant at Reaktor, developing Robot Framework and helping customer teams in organizing their test automation efforts. He has spoken in XP 2009 and Scan-Agile 2009 conferences.