Community of Practice

Description

The idea of Communities of Practice (CoP) was first introduced by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in 1991 [Lave 2008].

Wenger further developed the concept in a 1998 book "Communities of Practice" [Wenger 2007]. For Wenger, these communities are a means of learning that can be classified in the style of education called socioconstructivism [Wikipedia 2021-1] which brings together individuals around [SAFe 2021-11] :

• a field in which a common interest is found
• a community of people who have an interest in this field
• practices shared by this community to address this domain
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These communities are interested in sharing the tacit knowledge held within an organisation [Nonaka 1998].
At Spotify, for example, there are two types of CoPs :

• chapters
• guilds

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which each have their own mode of governance [Moustier 2019-1] [Kniberg 2012].

SAFe also proposes the use of CoPs [SAFe 2021-11] because these CoPs allow:

• the emergence of a culture that cuts across the organisation
• a greater attachment to the company
• increase connections between people and thus promote productivity [SAFe 2021-12].
• cross-functional improvement of skills and fight against the Dunning-Kruger effect [Wikipedia 2021-2]

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Application to test maturity

When the organisation sets up a CoP around testing practices, the participants in such a community come to share knowledge of testing practices by taking advantage of the experiments carried out in certain teams and generate a momentum for innovation in the company.

In addition, the CoP is also a source of meetings between different testers who will be able to forge links outside the hierarchy and facilitate software quality at the systemic level in terms of mutual aid, tools and functionalities linked to the product.

Agilitest's position on this practice

Due to its simplicity, the adoption of Agilitest in an organisation can be greatly facilitated by a test-related CoP.

Agilitest, like any tool, offers practices. Amongst these practices, one can for example bring out a common way of implementing the BDD and the related Ubiquitous Language.

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To discover the whole set of practices, click here.

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