Agile development is become popular to organizations day by day. Testing persons needs to perform ‘Agile Testing’ for agile development. There
are lots of misconceptions about agile testing. Some very common myths are
discussed below:
Myth1: Agile Testing is ad
hoc
Ad hoc testing is performed without planning and documentation. Agile
involves with planning sprints and resources forward of time. The test cycles
are sync with development cycles; that are an inherent part of the planning. The agile test plans are based on the user stories
of a sprint. The stories may be included or removed from a sprint. Agile testing
is centered on the developed stories; so, it is not ad hoc.
Myth2: Testing in Agile is
undocumented, quick and dirty
Documentation is an important part
of agile project. Agile insists on rapid communication. The only difference with
other mythologies is that agile gives more important to face-to-face
interaction than extreme dependence on written communication. Agile maintains
tools for communication.
The agile teams are usually
provided with guidelines and requirements on the level of documentation and
coding comments that they need to incorporate.
Myth3: Agile Testing does
not have defined strategies
Testing cycle is synchronized
with development, and it acts as quality gateways for the sprints in agile
project. Multiple approaches are followed to quickly test the stories of a
sprint. Also, agile testing helps in continuous monitoring of the application
after release; and ensuring a complete feedback loop for the next sprints.
Myth4: Agile testing is tool
oriented
Agile is a person oriented
methodology. Agile gives more importance to person over process and tools. Efficient
development and testing practices are more important than just being able to
use tools. Test teams are engaged with daily sprint meetings from the start of
user story identification. So, it helps to identify issues on early in the
sprint.
Myth5: Agile Testing is
best done by developers
Testing is inspired through
the agile methodology. It is done by both developers and testers. It is a
collaborative work approach between developers and testers. Testing teams are
seamlessly integrated with the development life-cycle. The role of a tester in
agile becomes more proactive.
Testers seamlessly collaborate
with the developers to meet their goal of delivering a bug free product by finding
the bugs, fixing those, and verifying those before a sprint release.
Myth6: Agile Testing should
all be at same geographical location
It is definitely good to have
the whole team in one geographical location. Teams are assembled from different
geographical locations with the help of technology in a global company.
Meetings can be held involving people all around the world at the click of a
button. There are some tools available for collaboration and file sharing.
Testing teams should be ready
to accommodate different time zones and leverage technology to adopt efficient
meeting practices. With a little effort, flexibility, adaptability and the
proper mind-set, distributed teams can just be as agile as the co-located
teams.
So, try to avoid the above
listed misconceptions and start Agile from today.
