In an Agile scrum team, testers must work closely with the other team members and business stakeholders. This has a lot of impacts in terms of the skills a tester must possess and the tasks they undertake as part of an Agile team. In Agile, the entire team is responsible for QA, so testers and developers must collaborate closely. The agile scrum method emphasizes communication and collaboration. Before beginning work on the coding and testing of any feature, developers and testers should collaborate to create user stories.
The role of testers in Agile development is not merely to find bugs at the end of the cycle, but to search for them and eliminate them all along the way to assure the quality of products and timely delivery of such quality products. Begin functional and integration tests as soon as the developers have completed their job. Bugs should be reported as soon as they appear. Retesting functionality and application following the release of fixes.
We’ll go through the major tasks and responsibilities of an Agile tester in this post and how the role of a QA engineer in Agile differs from that in previous environments.
1. What are the differences between testing in traditional and agile approaches
Do Agile industries hire software testers? And, if they do, how does working as an Agile tester differ from other types of testing?
Every software tester or QA engineer is aware that work in agile projects differs significantly from traditional programs. Testing is strongly intertwined with coding without a question, and it should take on diverse forms at different stages of software development. Traditional projects using a non-agile methodology, such as model V, where operations are executed sequentially in a V-shape, have an equivalent testing period for each development phase.
Traditional testing is mostly reliant on documentation. InAgile, on the other hand, collecting all requirements, testing, and development takes place sequentially; everything is done repeatedly with minimal documentation. The team members work closely together using a testing-first methodology, writing automated unit tests before coding the functions.
2. The Main Responsibilities of Agile Testers
The major roles and responsibilities of agile testers are as follows:
2.1. Assigning in the Description of Acceptance Criteria and “Completed”
In contrast to the Waterfall model, in which QA experts begin their work at the end of the development process, testers are actively engaged from the commencement of the process in Agile. Agile testers collaborate closely with developers, the product owner, and other team members to determine the acceptance criteria for each user story, or the requirements that must be fulfilled for a software product to be deemed finished. In Agile, QA specialists should describe how many tests each user story must succeed to receive the status of “completed,” as well as anticipate the effort and time required to test each user story. Agile QA engineers should also examine the testability of each software feature and assist the organization on how to improve the product’s testability.
2.2. Attending Regular Standup Meetings and Responding to them
One of the most significant procedures in Agile is the daily standup meeting, which normally lasts 15–30 minutes. Team members discuss the job they performed yesterday, the projects they will work on today, and any problems they faced at any of these meetings. An Agile tester must attend daily meetings to be fully informed about the project’s work and progress. But if anything gets in the way of the testing, the issue should be brought up throughout a daily meeting so that it may be resolved as quickly as feasible. In addition, if an Agile tester has the ability to help other members of the team with their duties and the challenges they face, it should be taken advantage of in order to accelerate the delivery process.
2.3. Preparing and Implementing their Task
All team members are given a lot of flexibility in how they accomplish their work in the Agile approach, as long as it works quickly and well. Nobody limits their innovation, but the team as a whole, as well as each member, is expected to be efficient and self-organizing. Agile testers must plan what tasks they will do during each release (a short work cycle of 1–4 weeks), evaluate how much time each task will take, and monitor the time interval spent on each task as well as the progress. They must also work to improve their working method to find out the effectiveness.
2.4. Quickly Adapting to Change
One of the core characteristics of Agile is the ability to adjust to change fast and efficiently. User story requirements are regularly amended in this method based on new data about user wants and business value. As a result, Agile testers should be prepared to change current test cases and build new ones as needed. Agile fosters a fast-paced workplace that can be difficult to adjust to at first. When a tester gets used to it, though, the Agile approach opens up a lot of possibilities.
2.5. Automation Regression Testing and Other Daily Tasks
With Agile, the quantity of regression testing increases significantly because new features, bug patches, and other increments are implemented quickly during each sprint. Test automation becomes critical in this case. It may be used to speed up not only regression testing but also other routine testing operations. A test automation expert is required of an Agile tester. Fortunately, there are several excellent test automation tools available today, such as Selenium, UFT One, Katalon Studio, cypress.io, webdriverio, and many more to make the job much easier.
2.6. Continual improvement and learning
One of the pillars of Agile is continuous improvement, and there is undoubtedly plenty to gain from this approach.
To begin, a tester must understand the Agile principles, methods, and workflow. Secondly, because all members of an Agile team collaborate closely and are adaptable, an Agile tester must be knowledgeable in development methods, coding, programming languages, and business logic. A QA engineer will be able to work more effectively with developers and business analysts and contribute to overall product quality improvement in this manner. Thirdly, Agile testers must continuously evaluate the outcomes of their work and working methods, determining what was a success and what was a failure, and learning from both to improve and increase the productivity of their work in the future.
2.7. Providing Feedback and Guidance to the Team on Testing Questions.
Because a QA engineer is a testing specialist on an Agile team, he or she must assist the rest of the team in understanding and applying the best testing techniques to their work on the product. An Agile tester may support developers in writing unit tests and creating excellent automated tests, as well as to make the product design more testable and ensuring that the team’s testing processes are of the greatest quality.
3. Conclusion
Every Agile team that genuinely embraces the Agile principles of excellent product quality, end-user happiness, and rapid delivery needs a QA expert. Being an Agile tester has its own set of challenges, which we mentioned in this article. Such an expert must participate in the product development process from the beginning, collaborate with all team members, learn new abilities, consistently enhance, and be on the lookout for new opportunities. Working in an Agile workplace that is fast-paced and often changing can be difficult at first. Agile, on the other hand, offers limitless potential for professional and career advancement if a tester continues with it.
We genuinely hope you found this post helpful. As always, feel free to contact us if you have any queries or require support from our Agile-experienced testers.
