Agile Testing: What Would Deming Do?

Through his quality practices, Edwards Deming transformed Japanese industry in the 1950s and later American industry, proving that building quality intrinsically into a product dramatically lowers costs. Although agile development brings the software industry into closer alignment with Deming, we often continue to rely on end-of-process inspection and rework to ensure quality. A fresh look at Deming’s principles will help testers make a powerful impact on the success of the software projects and the organization. Mark Strange reviews how agile testing differs from traditional software testing, explores what test teams should be measuring (more than defect counts), and shares statistical techniques to help identify problems and bottlenecks in your testing process. With Deming at your side, you can amaze management and the business by bringing your software development to a higher level of productivity and quality than they've ever seen.