Written by Zorica Planchak, member of Nion’s Software Testing team
Agile Testing is software testing that follows the principles of agile software development to test a software application. All members of the team along with the testers are involved in agile testing. In Agile, quality is everyone’s responsibility and testing occurs throughout development. Agile testing is not a separate phase, and it is carried out with all the development phases i.e. requirements, design and coding, and test case generation. This approach helps detect and fix issues early, aligning with Agile’s iterative development cycles. Customer satisfaction is a primary concern for agile test engineers in the agile testing process.
Agile Quality Assurance (QA) is a process that focuses on continuous testing and collaboration throughout the lifecycle of the product. It involves continuous testing in parallel with development so that we can quickly identify and resolve the defects in the project.
This approach ensures that the product is not only functionally correct but also meets the needs and fulfils the expectations of the end-users.QA Testing is focused more on finding the errors or bugs early before they become a severe risk for the project. Early testing is one of the most important principles of QA, since it helps save money and resources, as opposed to finding issues in the product later in the development lifecycle. Every bug found at a later stage costs more to fix.
Agile testing is directly related to the Agile framework which has its Manifesto as the core set of values and principles:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
The Agile Manifesto argues that although the concepts on the right have value, those on the left have greater value. Let’s see how we can try to interpret it in terms of testing.
Individuals and Interactions
From QA Perspective: Agile development is very people centred. Teams of people build software, and it is through continuous communication and interaction, rather than a reliance on tools or processes, that teams can work most effectively.
Working Software
From QA Perspective: Focus on delivering working software rather than extensive test documentation or manual tests, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Only create documentation if it adds real value and avoid unnecessary paperwork. Streamline testing processes and communicate defects clearly to the development team.
Working software, even with limited functionality, is more valuable to clients than overly detailed documentation. It allows for rapid feedback and provides a significant time-to-market advantage by being available earlier in the development cycle.
Agile development is particularly effective in fast-changing environments where problems or solutions are unclear, making it ideal for innovation and tackling new challenges.
Customer Collaboration
From QA Perspective: Customers often have trouble clearly defining their system requirements, making ongoing collaboration essential. Regular communication and close collaboration in Agile help teams better understand customer expectations, from functionality to performance needs. By working closely together, teams can identify both functional and non-functional requirements (NFR), such as system speed and other expectations. This ensures the right tests are automated and aligned with the customer’s vision. Overall, your relationship with your customers should look like a partnership, not an argument.
Responding to Change
From QA Perspective: A key challenge in Agile testing is keeping up with frequent software changes. Instead of rigid planning for an uncertain future, focus on adaptability—reacting quickly to shifting priorities and requirements. Since change is inevitable due to market shifts, regulations, and technology advances, flexibility in testing is crucial for success.
Since we got familiarized with the QA’s side of Agile’s core values, here are some of the best agile testing practices:
- Testing and development are performed together. Agile testing is integrated into the development phase, not a separate step. It ensures features are fully completed within each iteration, avoiding delays by testing as development progresses.
- All team members are involved. Agile testing involves each and every member of the development team and the testing team. It includes various developers and experts.
- Documentation should be weightless. Lightweight documentation tools are used. Typically, online tools that are easy to access and update iteratively.
- Constant responses. Agile testing helps to deliver responses or feedback on an ongoing basis. Like this, the product can meet business needs.
- Client’s satisfaction. In agile testing, customers are exposed to the product throughout the development process. Throughout the development process, the customer can modify and update the requirements, and the tests can also be changed as per the changed requirements.
- Test-driven. In agile testing, the testing needs to be conducted alongside the development process to shorten the development time. But testing is implemented after the implementation or when the software is developed in the traditional process.
Unfortunately, even the best frameworks and methodologies have their own flaws. Some of the most present challenges during Agile Testing are:
- Changing requirements: Sometimes during product development changes in the requirements or the specifications occur but when they occur near the end of the sprint, the changes are moved to the next sprint and thus become the overhead for developers and testers.
- Inadequate test coverage: In agile testing, testers sometimes miss critical test cases because of the continuously changing requirements and continuous integration. This problem can be solved by keeping track of test coverage by analyzing the agile test metrics.
- Tester’s availability: Sometimes the testers don’t have adequate skills to perform certain kinds of testing, which results in missing important test cases. One solution to this problem is to provide training for the testers so that they can carry out essential tests effectively.
- Less Documentation: In agile testing, there is less or no documentation which makes the task of the QA team more tedious.
- Performance Bottlenecks: Sometimes developers build products without understanding the end-user requirements and following only the specification requirements, resulting in performance issues in the product. Using load testing tools performance bottlenecks can be identified and fixed.
- Skipping essential tests: In agile testing, sometimes agile testers due to time constraints and the complexity of the test cases put some of the non-functional tests on hold. This may cause some bugs later that may be difficult to fix.
To address Agile testing challenges, certain best practices should be followed in all development projects. These include writing tests in advance, preventing defects early, and running the right test types at the right time. Agile testers play a key role in guiding these practices throughout the lifecycle, emphasizing a lightweight approach to avoid excessive documentation.
A well-structured QA process enhances product quality, customer satisfaction, and efficiency while preventing risks like dissatisfied users, trust issues, and delays. Agile testing should prioritize a mix of manual and automated testing, focusing on high-impact areas first.
QA engineers should be involved from the start of each sprint, participating in planning and stand-ups for better test execution. Test plans must be flexible to accommodate changing requirements, and continuous training is essential to keep up with evolving technologies.
Automation improves long-term efficiency, particularly for regression, load, and performance testing. However, it must be carefully implemented to avoid unnecessary complexity. Testing should be integrated into each sprint, ensuring early defect detection and resource savings.
Finally, understanding the end user helps tailor QA processes to meet customer needs, creating value-driven applications while optimizing time and resources.
How Should QA Work in Agile?
Understanding the customer can help with a blind spot the engineers might miss. What are actions that the customer might try to meet their needs? Are we overlooking something from their perspective? The more everyone on the team focuses on the customer, the more perspectives you’ll have.
Benefits of QA are numerous, including but not limited to:
- reduced risks
- higher customer satisfaction
- greater efficiency
- smaller maintenance cost
- improved collaboration
A tester on an Agile project will work differently than one working on a traditional project. Testers must understand the values and principles that underpin Agile projects, and how testers are an integral part of a whole-team approach together with developers and business representatives. The members in an Agile project communicate with each other early and frequently, which helps with removing defects early and developing a quality product. Additionally, keep in mind application design. Understanding your product’s design can help identify interesting edge cases that should be considered.
With Agile, testers will continually focus on the customer. And teams will not be pressured having to choose speed or quality – they can have both.
If you are interested in other topics connected to Software testing, you can check out our previous post.