Managing software debt to an appropriate level can be difficult for Agile teams racing to deliver features to customers. It is even more difficult since many forms of software debt are hard to identify without the aid of external tools. Chris Sterling, author of the book Managing Software Debt, will show real world examples of how to put tools, monitoring, and organizational structures in place to manage software debt by raising early indicators across all types of software debt: technical, quality, configuration management, design, and platform experience.

Songkick is a web based music startup which operates in a new market place full of unknowns, developing a free service. Focusing on user experience as one of the most critical features of the product. Continuously iterating and experimenting with features based on user observations and metrics. Unusually we adopted Acceptance tests and BDD while still in the early startup phase. Having spent more than 2 years growing our system and learning the pain points both technically and culturally we have lots of interesting lessons we would like to share about startups and Acceptance testing.

Ever wonder what it would feel like to be on a team doing acceptance test driven development? Now’s your chance. In this hands on workshop you and your team will be responsible for delivering a working web application. You will have to work with a product owner and designer to write and automate the acceptance tests describing the site as it evolves. At the end of the session you will see your cucumber features open a browser and verify the application for correctness.

Many Agile teams apply a traditional testing approach to their development efforts. In this presentation we will look at this process through our Lean Microscope to see if we can pinpoint waste. The discussion will focus on how testing software after development opens up the possibility for rework which is the definition of waste. We will also explore how writing comprehensive test plans is a duplication of the requirements gathering effort and why the two artifacts often get out of sync. Finally, we will offer an alternative approach which is to test the software prior to development.

The future of Agile depends strongly on Software Craftsmanship. We’ve tried agile without technical practices, and we’ve found it flaccid. We’ve tried the practices without the discipline and we’ve found them lukewarm. The agile movement is at a crossroads. How did we get here, and which path will we take? Will Agile be consigned forever to be a mildly interesting project management technique, or will it become the professional discipline that the software industry really needs.

What does it mean to ‘do’ Continuous Integration? It used to be enough to execute your unit tests in CI. But the bar is steadily raising for engineering practices. In the last decade we’ve seen tremendous improvements in acceptance testing. JavaScript is now a platform in it’s own right. Cloud computing is now vital. There’s growing interest in deployment to prod.

So Continuous Integration is under more pressure than ever. As the bar slowly raises for engineering practices, we’ll present 2011’s minimum viable feature set for Continuous Integration.

The testers are always pressured at the end of each iteration. And automating tests is so costly in time and effort. Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re probably testing too late. To keep up with the pace of iterative development, testing must start before the code is written, and much of it must be automated. Cost-effective automation starts very early in the development cycle. This brings additional benefits, such as refining the concept of the functionality and guiding the code implementation—thereby increasing return on investment. We’ll cover ways of making this happen.

Cucumber can be a powerful tool to build a common, or ubiquitous, language between product people, developers, and testers. A common language leads to common understanding and, ultimately, more valuable software. Unfortunately, too many teams write Cucumber scenarios that use technical language and miss out on this benefit. In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to use Cucumber to grow a ubiquitous language and how to refactor your existing scenarios to speak “business.” (While the focus is on Cucumber, users of other tools will surely see ways to apply the lessons to their own tools.)

Acceptance tests reduce delays in the work flow by decreasing re-work. This session introduces acceptance testing; explains why it works; and outlines the different roles the team members play in the process. Ken contrasts acceptance testing with unit testing and shows examples of how the process clarifies the work to be done. He demonstrates a common form of table-driven acceptance tests. Tracking project progress with passing and failing acceptance tests is demonstrated. He shows breaking requirements into smaller stories by using acceptance tests as the criteria for story size.