Traditionally testing happens at the end when we have a product we can test from start to finish. If we try and test earlier we are just wasting time, as things will change. Right? No, wrong. An agile testing mindset helps us to move our testing thinking to the start of the process and ends up saving us valuable time and energy.
We all know mindsets are hard to change, and this is no different.
Signs that you could benefit from agile testing
Here are some of the common signs we see from teams that could benefit from agile testing:
- At the end of a sprint, your testers are always rushed and too busy, yet at the beginning, they have nothing to do.
- Your developers run ahead of the testers and start working on stories in future sprints as they are waiting for testing to catch up.
- You have a manual regression phase before a release, which is usually long and cumbersome.
- Developers often write code before discussing test cases with testers, or, in some cases, test cases are never discussed with developers.
- Tester’s get to decide if a build should be released or not.
- You have a separate test or QA team.
- You have a large number of change requests because you never quite deliver what the customer needs.
- Test automation is very minimal, or your test automation is all GUI based.
- You have a large (and growing) number of bugs found by testers and users that don’t get fixed.
- The team typically does not fix bugs in the same sprint when they are found.
- Only the testers have access to their test cases, no one else even knows where they are.
Why should we care about agile testing?
Over a decade of helping teams with agile testing we have noticed the following benefits:
- Saving time and money by preventing bugs rather than only finding them at the end, simply by involving testers and testing thinking right from the start of the process.
- Make your employees happier and more engaged by eliminating error-prone and boring manual regression testing. Instead, have your testers and developers pair up to create automated regression tests.
- Ensure you delight customers by not only building what they asked for, but also creating something that adds value for them
- Improving the team’s velocity by removing test bottlenecks and fixing defects immediately.
If some of the above ring true for you, try taking our quiz below, we will also send you an email about our agile testing workshop that you can run with your team and get all these benefits for yourself.
How agile is your testing?
Take our quiz to find out…
Thank you Sam! This is new journey for me and your practical advice gives me confidence
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