Questioning Software: Better Tools for Individuals through Collaboration

Posted by Ben Simo

Individuals and
interactions
over
processes and tools
- from the Agile Manifesto

I spent the second half of last week at the Agile Alliance Functional Testing Tools Visioning Workshop. (How's that for a long name?) Before the workshop, I was thinking that it seemed a little oxymoronic to have an agile workshop with a focus on tools. Perhaps my thinking was triggered by my concerns about those who seem to value "agile" processes and tools (often ones they sell) more than people.

Agile people are supposed to care about people and not care about tools. Right? Wrong.

while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more

- from the Agile Manifesto

Software is developed by people for people. Agility involves building better software by adapting to the needs of people instead of letting processes and tools lead the way. Process and tools do best when they have a supportive role in software development. Better tools can support agility but they cannot make anyone agile.

The tool-centric discussions at the workshop were driven by a desire to build better software for people that build and test software. It is about people.

It then seems quite apropos that the book I indiscriminately grabbed off the shelf (well, I picked it for its size more than its content) to read on the airplane to and from the workshop is Ben Shneiderman's Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. The first chapter contains the following paragraphs that affirm my thinking about the role of automation in software testing. (Emphasis is mine.)

The first transformation from the old to the new computing is the shift in what users value. Users of the old computing proudly talked about their gigabytes and megahertz, but users of the new computing brag about how many e-mails they sent, how many bids they made in online auctions, and how many discussion groups they posted to. The old computing was about mastering technology; the new computing is about supporting human relationships. The old computing was about formulating query commands for databases; the new computing is about participating in knowledge communities. ...

The second transformation to the new computing is the shift from machine-centered automation to user-centered services and tools. Instead of the machine doing the job, the goal is to enable you to do a better job. Automated medical diagnosis programs that do what doctors do have faded as a strong research topic; however, rapid access to extensive medical lab tests plus patient records for physicians are expected, and online medical support groups for patients are thriving. ... Natural language dialogs with computerized therapists have nearly vanished, but search engines that enable users to specify their information needs are flourishing. The next generation of computers will bring even more powerful tools to enable you to be more creative and then disseminate your work online. This Copernican shift is bringing concerns about users from the periphery to the center. The emerging focus is on what users want to do in their lives.
- Ben Shneiderman, Leonardo's Laptop

Although many think of us software testers and developers as eccentric nerds, software developers and testers are human too. Like other humans, we desire tools that help us do a better job. This was the theme of the workshop: envisioning ways that tools can help us do a better job testing software.

After reviewing existing tools used by agile teams: we identified software testing issues that have been solved (yellow), those that have been partially solved (orange), and those that have not been solved (pink). As I recollect, most of the solved issues were technical problems and most of the unsolved problems were people problems. Many of the partially solved problems were those for which I believe we have technical solutions but have not yet been integrated and presented in ways that best support people. Much of the "what's next" discussion at the workshop was focused on how to integrate existing tools that each partially solve problems but together could move problems to the solved group.

Once the technical problems are solved, we can work on the tools to help with the people problems: we can move from old computing to new computing.

In Leonardo's Laptop, Ben Shneiderman presents a framework for integrating creative activities of people. This framework for mega-creativity consists of four activities:

Collect: Learn from what exists
Relate: Consult with peers and mentors
Create: Think: explore solutions
Donate: Disseminate the results and contribute

This is not a waterfall process. It is an interactive iterative framework for innovation. Shneiderman's book focuses on the need to develop software to support this framework. The participants in the functional test tool workshop focused on the need to develop testing software to support those developing software to support this framework. And in doing so, we exhibited this framework in action -- without even identifying the framework. (I read about the framework on the plane home from the workshop.)

Gathering people that are interested in and working on solutions together accelerates the collection, creation, and donation. I expect great things to come from this gathering.

My thanks and appreciation go to the Agile Alliance for sponsoring this workshop; and to Ron Jeffries, Elizabeth Hendrickson, and Jennitta Andrea for organizing it.

Let's keep the innovation ball rolling and build "new computing" tools.

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