Finding time to learn test techniques, mentor other testers, grow application knowledge, and cross-train your team members is a daunting task with a complicated recipe. What if you could do these things while testing and finding bugs? Enter Pair Testing. What’s that? Well, maybe you’ve heard of pair programming. It’s like that—only you’re testing rather than programming. And it’s the secret sauce of agile testing because it makes your routine, bland testing so much more fun! Testers on Jess Lancaster’s team use pair testing not only to make better software but also to foster better relationships along the way. Jess explores why pairing works, how to run an effective pairing session, and just how easy it is to get started with pairing. Armed with Jess’ easy-to-use Pair Testing recipe card, plan your first pairing encounter so you are ready to roll when you get back to the office. This sounds easy enough, but you know there will be mistakes when you try it. Jess has you covered there, too. Learn his team’s pairing mistakes and the things he did to improve their pairing sessions.

1.
W4
Agile
Testing
5/10/17
11:30
Pairing:
The
Secret
Sauce
of
Agile
Testing
Presented
by:
Jess
Lancaster
TechSmith
Brought
to
you
by:
350
Corporate
Way,
Suite
400,
Orange
Park,
FL
32073
888-­‐-­‐-­‐268-­‐-­‐-­‐8770
·∙·∙
904-­‐-­‐-­‐278-­‐-­‐-­‐0524
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info@techwell.com
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http://www.starwest.techwell.com/

2.
Jess
Lancaster
Jess
Lancaster
is
the
QA
practice
manager
at
TechSmith,
the
makers
of
Snagit,
Camtasia,
and
other
visual
communication
software
applications.
He
coaches
and
equips
testers
with
the
skills
to
be
quality
champions
on
agile
teams.
With
more
than
twenty
years
of
information
systems
and
software
development
experience,
Jess
has
been
a
consultant,
test
lead,
and
test
manager
with
government,
financial,
insurance,
and
commercial
software
organizations.
Jess
is
passionate
about
getting
into
the
trenches
with
other
testers,
exploring
software,
and
trying
new
testing
techniques.
Cofounder
of
the
Lansing
Area
Software
Testers
meetup,
he
also
helps
grow
the
next
generation
of
software
testers
by
teaching
software
testing
courses
at
Lansing
Community
College.

3. 5/1/2017
1
Pairing:
The Secret Sauce of
Agile Testing
Jess Lancaster
Twitter: @jessclancaster
LinkedIn: JessLancaster

4. 5/1/2017
2
About Jess
In this session you will learn:
Why pairing works, and reasons why you as a
tester or agile team member need to be
pairing
How to get started
My team’s pair testing mistakes and what
worked well
The recipe for making this secret sauce back
at work

5. 5/1/2017
3
What is Pair Testing?
Pair Testing is testing of software by two team members sitting
behind one machine
One team member is the Driver, in control of the mouse and
keyboard, the other one is the Notetaker, making notes, discussing
the test ideas and asking questions, and making observations

6. 5/1/2017
4
Primary styles of pairing
Tester/Tester with Driver/Notetaker
Tester/Other Team Member with
Driver/Notetaker
Tester/Developer
Why you need to be pairing
Mentoring
Collaborative learning sessions
Knowledge sharing – Testing or otherwise
Gave birth to Co-Testing: Testing together
with more than one machine
Builds team relationships

7. 5/1/2017
5
Why you need to be pairing
Gives a product team-based tester added
perspective
Productivity
Provides focus and direction in testing
New feature bug harvesting
The software benefits from perspectives
colliding
Experience report: How we
cooked up pair testing
@TechSmith
Our testers work a matrixed structure, embedded in
agile teams reporting to a Practice Manager
Wanted to get our testers sharing testing
knowledge and product knowledge
Started with other collaboration exercises, but that
wasn’t directly tied to daily work that needed to get
done and fell off

8. 5/1/2017
6
Where we started with
pairing
We experimented with pair testing:
Researched it
Created a one page job aid, I termed the
Pair Testing Cheat Sheet
Trained it
Tried it
Reported on it
Improved it
Kept doing it
What Pairing
looks like
@TechSmith

9. 5/1/2017
7
That’s all great, but how
do I make the sauce!?!
Steps to Making Awesome
Sauce
Think of P.A.I.R. as a Four Step mnemonic
Partner
Arrangements
Investigation
Retrospective

10. 5/1/2017
8
Step 1 – Choose a Partner
Choose a tester, developer, or other team member
you want to partner with in a pair testing session
Step 2 – Arrangements -
Quick Planning
Plan your pairing session. Determine the following:
Schedule a time to test and the length of the
session
Define the testing focus. Clarify the goals and what
you expect for outputs of your pairing session
Determine at what point you want to switch who’s
in the driver’s seat.
Choose an environment that is suitable for two
people to test together at one machine. Be sure you
can work without interruptions and are free to talk
to each other.

11. 5/1/2017
9
Pick a suitable feature or
small set of features to test
Define an exploratory test charter.
One way of expressing charters is with
the simple template:
Explore area with resources,
constraints, tools, etc. to discover
information.
Pair testing works great when testing
new features or functionality.
Check out Exploratory Testing on
Agile Teams and charters in this book
Test Charter
Two Named Individuals Testing
Pair Testing
Session Inputs
What Hardware
do I need?
Access set up?
Application
install?
Configuration?
Clarify your focus - Based on your
charter generate ideas of things to
test
What’s in scope, out of scope?
How long is your pairing session?

12. 5/1/2017
10
What did you discover through the course of testing? These
are the session notes of your Pair Testing effort. The things
you tested, bugs discovered, what didn’t you get to, and list
of any follow up items – questions, tasks, etc.
Explore Image Advanced Capture options of Snagit with effects/sharing options to
determine if any new bugs were introduced when Advanced Capture code was refactored.
Jess Lancaster and Emeril Lagasse
• A Windows 10 laptop
• Current Snagit
development build
installed
• Multiple monitors
• Network access for
sharing options
• In Scope
• All Advanced capture options
• Start with ensuring all option perform as expected before
going to capture permutations
• Use Effects
• Sharing options: TechSmith products
• Modify Capture defaults Preview, Copy, Cursor, Time Delay
• Out of Scope
• Sharing options outside of those listed above
• Downloadable sharing options
• Video capture
90 min.

13. 5/1/2017
11
Exercise: Using your Recipe Card
Create your own Pairing Recipe for
a Session
Charter: Explore area with resources,
constraints, tools, etc. to discover information.
Example:
Explore the printing options of Snagit without modifying
printer properties to determine if any new bugs were
introduced the page setup options were refactored.
Explore area with resources, constraints, tools, etc. to
discover information.
Two Named Individuals Testing
Pair Testing
Session Inputs
What Hardware
do I need?
Access set up?
Application
install?
Configuration?
Clarify your focus - Based on your
charter generate ideas of things to
test
What’s in scope, out of scope?
How long is your pairing session?

14. 5/1/2017
12
Step 3 – Investigation -
(TEST)
Run the pair testing session
One team member (the Driver) is in control of the
keyboard and mouse. The second team member
thinks out-loud, asks questions, and makes session
notes. Driver starts by driving the testing session.
Tip: Don’t forget to take a break for longer pairing
sessions!
Switch roles at the defined interval.
Tip: Your mileage may vary on switching in short
pairing sessions.
Step 4 – Retrospective -
Report and Evaluate

15. 5/1/2017
13
Session Reporting
Summary of what you tested
Test Notes
Bugs
Issues – things you are unsure of, follow up
items, such as questions
Risks identified
Example Session Report

16. 5/1/2017
14
Evaluate
Complete a quick retrospective on the
session:
What worked well?
What would you improve based on the
session?
Mistakes I’ve made…
Setting team pairing goals, then backing off too
much
Hiding the pairing data from the team
Being too restrictive

17. 5/1/2017
15
Team Member Mistakes
Some didn’t do testing, but collaborated on ideas,
techniques for testing
Going over time limit…like way over…
Not having a more focused goal in what we want to
test: assumptions and scope
Setup: Plan for more time for getting things set up,
otherwise it eats into your testing time
Awesome Sauce…
People reached out to each other!
Learned from our mistakes and those of others due to team
shareouts
Tester/Dev pairing, Tester/Designer pairing, Tester/Support Rep
pairing, Test Manager/Program Manager pairing…
Testers discovered some new methods and tools that worked for
them: Co-Testing
Testers had a lot of good feedback for the initial user experience
Found plenty of bugs
Testing in front of the developers which helped to spur
conversations around the product and raise pairing awareness
Get to see partner’s approach to testing

18. 5/1/2017
16
Getting Started Tips
Review and follow the 5 steps
Find a pairing partner and try a session for 60
minutes, then do a quick evaluation
Try it again
Share it out: Expose others to the benefits!
Thank You!!!
Slides - http://bit.ly/pairtestingstareast
Jess Lancaster
Twitter: @jessclancaster
LinkedIn: JessLancaster

19. 5/1/2017
17
Resources
Sources for pairing information
http://www.kohl.ca/articles/pairtesting.pdf
http://katrinatester.blogspot.com/2015/05/pair-testing.html
Session-Based Test Management
http://www.satisfice.com/articles/sbtm.pdf
For more information on Exploratory Testing on Agile Teams and
charters: http://testobsessed.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/08/ETinAgile-agile2011-final.pdf
Maaret Pyhäjärvi – Two Styles of Pairing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRD2KBUYSI