Darko Grabovac, Agile Software Tester at M2Q, shares an honest and recognizable anecdote from his early years – with lessons that are still relevant today.
I remember an anecdote that took place at the beginning of my professional career, on a project where the client was switching to Agile Development. Many colleagues were still used to the “old way of working,” also known as the “Waterfall” method. I got a ticket for Testing and immediately went to the developer to clarify some things that didn’t make sense to me – or maybe I was just too ‘new’ to understand what was going on in the ticket. I got the explanation and moved on. After a while, I went back to the developer to ask another question. What happened then was an unpleasant surprise: she started raising her voice at me, clearly irritated by my further questions.
I was under the impression that I was communicating in a logical way – asking a question when something was unclear. At that point, I thought I had done something wrong and went to my Test Manager for advice. But the Test Manager, who had some experience with Agile, assured me that I had done everything “by the book” and that my questions were justified. It was a relief to see that the Test Manager understood the situation and would take further steps to prevent this from escalating.
It took me several years to understand it myself. Of course, having good communication skills means being able to answer all kinds of questions, but the real reason here was the change! The co-developer was used to receiving a task and completing it within the agreed time, without having to regularly (daily!) explain himself and be challenged. In fact, there was no reason to even talk about the tasks, such as saying things out loud. Everything was written down and considered self-evidently clear. Testing would occur later in the process, and if there were objections, it would be written down again.
Switching to the Agile way of development often means stepping out of your comfort zone. It means exposing yourself to others: your work is suddenly visible to everyone. It also means being challenged about what you do, or don’t do. One of many lessons learned!
Author: Darko Grabovac – Agile Software Tester @M2Q
