A Test Is Not Enough
A colleague recently pointed me at a post authored a couple years ago by Gerald Weinberg entitled Test Trimming: A Fable about Testing, which includes a fable Mr. Weinberg wrote for his granddaughter entitled “Rhubarb Cakes for the Queen of the Forest”. In the preface to the fable, he provides us his reason for writing it:
Throughout my career, I’ve watched in dismay as one software manager after another falls into the trap of achieving delivery schedules by trimming tests. Some managers shortcut test work by skipping reviewing and unit testing in the middle of their project. Others pressure the testers to “test faster” at the end. And, most frequently, they just drop planned tests altogether, hoping they “get lucky.”
Before reading further in the post, you should read the fable, and then come back and read the rest of this post.
Although the fable does a good job of demonstrating Mr. Weinberg’s point, there were parts of it that didn’t feel right to me:
- The developers (the forest animals in the fable), never talked talked to the Product Owner (the Queen)about whether it would be ok to push the deadline back an hour.
- The Product Owner didn’t stick to her business objectives very firmly: when Prudence Porcupine told a nice, pretty story to divert her attention, she caved in immediately.
One of the core principles of the Agile Manifesto is that “the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.” In the fable, the face-to-face conversation didn’t happen until after the team had already committed, and they got very lucky that the Product Owner was not very strict about her delivery date.
What if that wasn’t the case? What might the story have sounded like if the Product Owner couldn’t possibly be flexible with her deadline? Let’s pick up the story right where Prudence informed the Queen that she was going to be an hour behind:
Rhubarb Cakes for the Queen of the Fores Redux:
When a Test is Not Enough
Prudence stepped forward, bowed to the Queen and said, “My cake is in the oven, Your Majesty. It will be ready for your tasting in one hour.”
“WTF?! Are you kidding me?”, says the Queen. “None of you bothered to ask me why I wanted the cake. I really, really, really needed this cake on time because in 1/2 hour, I’m meeting with the King of the City, who is threatening to overrun the forest to expand his suburban empire. Rhubarb cake is one of his favorite foods. If I can’t bribe him, your homes are going to making way for the his new “Falling Oaks” subdivision! …and do I need to remind you all that you’re forest animals? …and that if there’s no forest, you’ll all be dead within a month?!“
“But my cake will be ready in just one hour!”, Prudence Porcupine protested. “Surely the King of the City will wait…”
“The King is punctual to a fault!!! One second late for our meeting, and the Caterpillar tractors will be fired up and rolling through our back yards!”, snapped the Queen.
“But I could tell him this wonderful story…”
“The King is a vehement objectivist! He carries a copy of Atlas Shrugged wherever he goes! If he hears one word of that frumpy Hans Christian Andersen drivel about the pampered elite, and he’ll vomit!”
“If only you had talked to me about what your plans were, we could have come up with something just right“, the Queen sobbed, as she buried her face in her hands. Prudence Porcupine could only stare nervously at the other animals, who were busily thumbing their PDAs, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone else there.
“My God! My God! What are we going to do?” shrieked the Queen. She paced nervously around the room, searching for any ideas.
“That’s it!!!”, she screamed, in obvious relief.
“There is only one thing that the King of the City loves more than rhubarb cake, and my personal chef can have it ready in half-an-hour.”
“What could that possibly be?”, asked the forest animals.
The Queen squinted her eyes, and with a fiendish sideways grin, gave her answer:
“Roast Porcupine.”