Learn Example Mapping by Doing!

Example mapping was invented by Matt Wynne. It is a great way to build shared understanding of each story across all roles in the team. It's best learned by doing. This preso shows how to do your own example mapping workshop. Try it with your team!

Transcript

1. @lisacrispin Learn Example Mapping by doing! Lisa Crispin Based on Matt Wynne’s Password Game
2. @lisacrispin A little about me Lisa Crispin Testing Advocate at mabl lisa@lisacrispin.com
3. @lisacrispin Learning intentions • How example mapping in a discovery workshop can help your team • How to facilitate an example mapping discovery workshop
4. @lisacrispin Matt Wynne originated example mapping See https://cucumber.io/blog/example-mapping- introduction/
5. @lisacrispin Asking testing questions early • Does this do what customers want? • Does it do what I expect? • What unexpected things could happen? • What undesirable things could happen? • What are the happy accidents? Testing is thinking
6. @lisacrispin Why example mapping? Think: Do your team’s stories get rejected a lot? Does it take longer than you’d like to get stories delivered? Work identified Work started Work completed Lead Time Process / Cycle Time
7. @lisacrispin Small differences can cause big misperceptions Rework slows cycle time
8. @lisacrispin Discovery to build shared understanding Example mapping provides a structure for your “amigos” conversations Builds shared understanding of each story before team starts testing and coding it
9. @lisacrispin Example mapping is best learned by doing Supplies: • Pack of 4 color index cards, or 4 colors of sticky notes • Sharpie-style markers • A large room or at least 2 separate rooms/spaces Photo by Frans Van Heerden from Pexels
10. Start your workshop Gather everyone in one room to start 1. Form an even number of teams of 2-4 people 2. Form pairs of teams Make Rules teams Guess Rules teams
11. @lisacrispin Have each team write this story on a white or yellow card/sticky
12. Separate the teams Make Rules teams Guess Rules teams Room A Room B (Or at least, far enough apart they can’t hear each other)
13. @lisacrispin Tell the “Guess Rules” teams Talk amongst yourselves for now! Photo by ELEVATE from Pexels
14. @lisacrispin Now, explain the exercise to the Make Rules teams Note the importance of time boxes!
15. @lisacrispin Tell the “Make Rules” Teams to: • Invent 3 rules for what makes a valid password of acceptable security • Keep the rules secret from the other teams • Be imaginative, have some fun. Examples: • “It must have an @ in it” • “It must not be the name of a fruit” WAIT! there are more instructions!
16. @lisacrispin More instructions for “Make Rules” Teams... • Create 3 examples that illustrate your rules • Write one per sticky note or card ◦ Note if it’s valid or invalid You have FOUR MINUTES!
17. @lisacrispin While they make the rules… • You, the facilitator, walk around and try to temper the rules from being too crazy (eg. “It must have a Scrabble score of 32”), though a little bit crazy is fun. • Help people avoid rules that can’t be specified with one single example (eg., “cannot be the same as your previous password”) • Be firm on the four minutes!
18. @lisacrispin Now bring in the “Guess Rules” teams Tell them to 1. Get the examples from their partner “Make Rules” team but no talking with them! 2. Try to figure out the rules for the passwords based on the examples 3. Write the rules down and pass them back to their partner team THREE MINUTES!
19. @lisacrispin While they guess the rules… • You, the facilitator, walk around and make sure the “make rules” and “guess rules” partner teams don’t talk to each other • Be firm on the three minutes!
20. @lisacrispin Round two! 2
21. @lisacrispin Ask the “Make Rules” teams: • Did your partner team guess the rules? • For any rules they missed, write new examples • Pass back to your partner team • Two minutes! Still no talking between teams
22. @lisacrispin Round 2 for the “Guess Rules” Teams - round 2 Ask the teams to: • Get the new examples from your partner team • Write down your new guesses for the rules • Two minutes! • (still no talking)
23. @lisacrispin Now it’s time to talk! Let the teams talk now. Ask about their results. • Did the “Guess Rules” teams get all the rules? • If not - how many more examples do you think you’d need?
24. @lisacrispin More questions to ask • What did you learn from the exercise? • Are examples or rules better? Why? • Or perhaps – having both is best?
25. @lisacrispin Wrap up with more explanation of example mapping
26. @lisacrispin When to do them Before the team plans stories together • “pre-planning” or “three amigos” meetings • Product owner, tester, dev, designer, ops expert… • Limit to 5 or so people
27. @lisacrispin Uses color coded cards
28. For each story, elicit business rules Use examples to illustrate the rules Rules Examples 1. Minimum 8, maximum 32 characters 2. One or more of each: upper-case letter, number, punctuation mark Valid: p4ssW0rd!, paSSw.rDp Invalid: p4ssword1, p4ssw@d, Pa%swd.
29. @lisacrispin Capture questions no one can answer yet Questions What wording to use for the error messages? Are these still good security practices? Should we use pass phrases instead? Write them on red or pink cards
30. @lisacrispin
31. @lisacrispin If your team is distributed, use online alternatives Don’t forget to note questions too!
32. @lisacrispin What’s the benefit? • Better shared understanding of each story • Get questions answered sooner • Identify gaps or stories that need splitting • Iteration planning meetings go faster
33. The examples become executable tests • Amigos can write scenarios based on the examples • Do this after the example mapping meeting • These business-facing tests guide development • The rules help us know more specifics about the code to write User Email Password Expected Result Comments Jane jane@atester.ca Passw0rd22 Logged in Valid login scenario
34. @lisacrispin Next steps • Try it with a real story • Ask the team to try example mapping as an experiment before the next story planning meeting • Set a goal and find a way to measure progress “We believe example mapping will shorten our cycle time by 10% over the next month”
35. @lisacrispin Evaluate your progress • Do metrics show progress towards goal? • Ask the team if they find it helpful? • If not, there are other great techniques for having structured conversations • If so, keep it up!
36. @lisacrispin Remember to collaborate Using your tester’s mindset!
37. More learning: • Discovery, Gáspár Nagy and Seb Rose, http://bddbooks.com/ • “Introducing Example Mapping”, Matt Wynne, https://cucumber.io/blog/example-mapping- introduction/ • “Experiment with example mapping”, Lisa Crispin, https://lisacrispin.com/2016/06/02/experiment- example-mapping/ • https://xebia.com/blog/example-mapping-steering- the-conversation/, Kishen Simbhoedatnanday
38. @lisacrispin Questions?