Supporting the Transition to an Agile Test Matrix

Abstract

The transition of AVL's software development unit towards lean and agile practices on team and enterprise level (implementing the scaled agile framework SAFe) requires a change in testing role, set and practices. We describe the changes of the testing strategy in reference to the agile test matrix - moving the focus of testing from system acceptance tests towards functional and unit tests. Furthermore, a supporting automated testing procedure was adopted to enable the splitting of tasks between different, globally distributed teams. With a test distribution tool, we are optimizing test execution time and test resource usage to meet the needs of the short agile cadence. The lessons learned so far during this ongoing project of tool implementation are shared. We conclude with an outlook on a research project that examines ways of systematic testing of nonfunctional requirements.