Why does testing take so long?

Sometimes testers are asked ‘why does testing take so long?’ The question should not make testers feel defensive. We should always be looking to improve our test process. Testers can use a technique from Toyota to answer the question and improve our process. 

Testers want their testing to flow easily from one task to the next, whether exploratory testing or test automation. Testers don’t want to be delayed or held up but sometimes, something causes delays. It could be that configuring the automation environment is fiddly, or it could be that getting an answer on how a piece of functionality should work holds up your testing or it could be something else.

The problems holding up your testing are problems and you want to remove so that your testing can flow smoothly. Removing the problem that is slowing testing the most should be where to start because it will have the biggest impact. 

To help you choose which problem you should work on removing first you could use the Lean metaphor of rocks slowing the flow of a river. Taiicho Ohno at Toyota wanted to “focus the process improvement efforts”[1] at Toyota because they would have the biggest effect on improving the flow of work. He used the size of rocks in a river as a metaphor to enable him to find the biggest problem to remove: “rocks are the problems disturbing the flow. There are many rocks at the bottom of the river and it takes time and effort to remove them. The question is which rocks are important to remove. The answer is given by reducing the water level; those rocks which emerge above the water are the ones that should be removed.”[1]

Testers want the process of testing to flow smoothly. Testing can be viewed as a flowing river, and the problems that are slowing the flow of testing can be viewed as the rocks that are slowing the river’s flow. If testing is viewed in this way the ‘rocks’ are the problems that are causing testing to take so long.

The ‘rocks’ that are slowing testing should be identified. An experiment can be conducted, as Ohno suggested, in which the amount of testing is reduced so to see which problems are affecting the flow of testing. Once identified, the problems can be analysed to find the largest ‘rock’ which ‘emerges above the water’. Toyota used the Five Why’s to identify the root causes of problems that were slowing the flow of work.[1] 

The testers may not have the authority to make the changes required to remove the largest rock which is slowing the flow of testing. Management should help the testers plan how to remove the largest ‘rock’ so that testing flows more smoothly and does not take so long. The largest ‘rock’ can then be removed and testing will flow more smoothly. 

I am using this approach to reduce the time taken to run automated test packs by analysing the tests to find the ‘rocks’ slowing them down. I am looking for the largest ‘rock’ so that it can be removed.

Testers should find the problems that slow testing and focus improvement efforts on removing the largest problem.

I’d like to thank the Profound Book Club for introducing me to Standing on the shoulders of Giants by Eli Goldratt.

References

[1] Standing on the shoulders of Giants by Eli Goldratt (2006, p6)