Don't let anyone tell you differently: Agile testing is hard! First, we have to get over the misconception that you don't need testers within agile teams. Then, we have to integrate testers with the developers and engender a holistic quality approach. And those are only the challenges when the going is easy! In more difficult contexts, testing in agile environments is-well, even more difficult. Bob Galen explores how to handle testing in difficult contexts-lack of test automation capabilities, agile in highly regulated environments, testing when your team is spread globally and real-time interactions are nearly impossible, and more. He describes contexts and approaches for blending existing, traditional testing techniques with their agile counterparts. With real-world examples, Bob describes how teams have achieved a good working balance between the two-for example, in test planning and quality metrics reporting.

Embedded systems development often includes special challenges: software tightly coupled to rapidly evolving hardware, an end customer with whom you cannot interact, a long period of infrastructure building before any business-value features are delivered, expectations of ultra-high reliability, and more. These challenges have convinced many embedded developers that agile is not for them. Nancy Van Schooenderwoert takes you on a virtual tour of an actual agile team developing software and firmware for a safety-critical embedded system. Follow their first iteration and examine what worked and what didn't. Through this virtual visit, Nancy explains how "plain vanilla" agile practices leave a gap, and she shares her teams' solution to the problem-agile practices tuned to the embedded world. Agile principles need not be watered down or compromised when you are faced with the challenges of embedded systems development.

Where agile thrives, great coaching is present. Whether formal or informal, coaching is a key ingredient for successful and lasting agility. Unfortunately, many people call themselves coaches yet they fail to do any real, helpful coaching. David Hussman presents tactics for growing coaching in your organization. He begins by focusing on finding coaching candidates-what skills and attributes they need-and then engaging them to grow their coaching capabilities. From there, David walks through pragmatic coaching tools that foster appropriate ceremony and meaningful coaching opportunities. He teaches you how to develop a process that helps teams draw on their experience while overcoming their unique constraints. Leave with new ideas for helping with backlogs, working out estimation challenges, keeping stand up meetings lively, and getting developers to stop just talking about testing and really start doing it.

No matter when it happens, integrating components is difficult. Tail-end integration, often called "big bang," is the hardest; it often leads "the hidden project"-you know, the one that occurs after everything is supposedly "done," when the team finally corrects all the integration defects. Steven “Doc” List describes how agile teams can use continuous integration to significantly reduce-if not eliminate-that hidden project. As Doc leads you through a fun and challenging simulation using LEGOs of all things, you'll experience the value of continuous integration up close and personal. After the exercise, Doc explores what you learned and how it applies to software in an agile development context. He compares and contrasts the traditional, big bang integration approach with the smoother, incremental, continuous integration process.