Agile Testing Methodology

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Agile Testing Methodology

Your new company follows Agile Testing Methodology, what should you know?

Written by: Paritosh Dave

The objective of this blog series is to highlight and discuss various Agile testing tips and techniques, learnt from both client engagements (working as part of Agile testing teams) and from learning done through reading on the topic.  

Although the focus of this article is to talk about software testing tips in an agile process, Agile Testing Methodology will be discussed.  None of the methodologies like Scrum or Extreme programming treat testing/testers as separate discipline/group. The idea is to create and maintain a self-organizing team with various skill sets, each person willing to contribute and helping other group members,   wearing different hat, as needed.

Agile development has caught worldwide attention in the last few years and is now the preferred software development methodology for most technical companies and SMBs. Organizations have made changes and adjustments to their existing development process, which have resulted in acceptance, usage and success of agile processes.  Many organizations have discarded the older waterfall model in favor of Agile.

There is no hard wired, prescribed way of determining or carrying out the agile process. It is up to the organization to make best use of it’s underlying philosophies. Some organizations claim to follow the Agile Process, but in fact, unknowingly, are really executing a hybrid of it with waterfall.  There are organizations who have tweaked the process successfully, to align it more with their internal process/work culture. There are some organizations who have already taken up agile for some of it’s departments/products but they feel that some other project/product are not suitable for agile processes.  These organizations are said to be following a Hybrid process.  In all these cases,  as long as they derive benefits and success of using agile methodology and in turn observe measurable productivity and quality gains, the purpose is served. One common result that will be observed in almost all the scenarios is that they have repeatedly provided incremental business value, with better quality.

The Agile way of doing things has ushered in an era of collaborative working, short feedback cycles, group thinking/working. All while improving quality and costs.

This is appropriate time to review the famous agile manifesto, agreed upon back in February 2001

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

Working Software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value on items on the right, we value items on the left more”

The role of a tester in agile process has also undergone many changes. The testing is not compartmentalized but an integrated part of the group working and progress. In the next part of the series, I will condense the tips and techniques of agile testing into 10 points.