Agile Eteasy: um método para aplicação de testes exploratórios em contextos ágeis.

Abstract

The insertion of agile practices in the development of software has increased exponentially, in the face of market demands regarding the agility and high quality of the software products developed. Thus, agile methods have stimulated, in teams, simpler, dynamic, and iterative practices that consider the reduction of artifacts, frequent communication between stake- holders, and flexibility for changes, among other aspects. A style of testing that has become widespread in the agile environment is Exploratory Testing (ET), as it allows professionals to learn quickly, adjust their tests and, in the process, find software problems that are often not foreseen in test plans. However, the ET approaches evidenced by the literature are not applicable in the practical context of agile teams. Other reasons are given by the absence of more specific support for the planning and execution of the ET, considering the multi- functional profile of the team; ET artifacts are obsolete for the current context of teams; the Session-Based Test Management (SBTM), for example, does not apply to the practical context; difficulty in reproducing the ET, due to the absence of powerful artifacts; among others. In this sense, the objective of this research is to support the implementation of ET in software development environments that adopt agile methods practices.For this, we use a problem-oriented research method, known as Design Science Research (DSR). Based on methodological rigor, two DSR cycles were applied. The results generated in this research indicate that the Agile ETeasy method is easy to understand and use by agile teams that work in the context of informal documentation and frequent changes in requirements. In view of what was investigated, we can conclude that the proposed artifact with the DSR is viable to be used in practice by agile teams, as it enables the mitigation of the main limitations of the application of ET in projects that adopt agile methods; and, the practical formalization of ET, which consider the cross-functional context of agile teams, and which provides quick results, with a little number of resources.