A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO AGILE TESTING PROCESS

Testing is an important aspect of the software development process. It involves finding bugs and glitches in the code and eliminating them to deliver a high-quality, error-free product. Development teams have been employing traditional testing methodologies for years, but the increasing adoption of agile development methodologies has accelerated the usage of agile testing techniques. Let’s take a deep dive into the Agile Testing Process.

What Is Agile Testing?

Agile testing is a collective term used to define testing techniques that follow the principles of agile software development.

It contains conducting regular and automated testing of code alongside the development process to recognize and fix defects in real-time.

With agile testing, QA engineers can get interested in the testing process from the beginning, decrease the cost of defects, and save time and money. 

What Are The Key Elements of Agile Methodology?

Agile testing incorporates the following principles: 

• Continuous Feedback: In addition to continuous testing, agile testing also incorporates distributing test results and getting feedback from customers and stakeholders to build the best possible product. 
• Face-to-Face Communication: Consistent, real-time communication is another critical element of agile testing. Testers must communicate instantly with developers and other decision-makers to understand expectations and remove discrepancies. 
• Value for Customers: The main principle of the agile methodology is to build value for the customers. The end purpose of agile testing is to deliver the best customer experience. 
• Simplicity: An agile testing process is simple and sophisticated. Testers only run tests that are required, and the focus of testing is to develop a product that’s simple and user-friendly. 
• Continuous Improvement: Agile testing incorporates continuous learning, with agile testers constantly learning new things to enhance the product. 
• Response to Change: Agility, at its core, is all about reacting to change efficiently. QA engineers require to be flexible and react to feedback coming from user stories and other modifications in the industry. 

To understand agile testing better, let’s compare it with traditional testing techniques. The conventional process, also known as the traditional waterfall method, incorporates the following stages:

• Requirements
• Design
• Implementation
• Verification
• Maintenance

The drawback to this technique is that one step starts only after the previous step is completed. The testing team starts the testing late in the development cycle, and the product detects several bugs by this time. Eradicating these mistakes from the product is hard, expensive, and time-consuming. 

Besides, this approach lacks continuous feedback and real-time communication, which makes the testing method vague and improves guesswork. All of this results in high time to market, low efficiency, and improved costs. 

Agile testing substitutes this waterfall method with a parallel structure where testers can start testing from the early phases of the development cycle. They can determine and eradicate bugs as they appear, making the testing strategy faster and more efficient. 

What is the Importance of Agile Testing?

Software testing is a crucial part of the software development process. It allows you to release high-quality, bug-free products that deliver the best customer experience, decrease churn, and promote business growth. However, executing the right testing method is important if you want to leverage the benefits of testing. 

Agile testing makes the software testing procedure faster and more flexible, allowing you to decrease time to market and improve productivity. Let’s look at some benefits of agile testing. 

Save Time

Development and testing are conducted simultaneously in agile testing. QA engineers can find problems and fix them in the initial stage, which allows saving time in the development and testing stages. This test-driven technique allows organizations to capture accurate unit testing, which isn’t possible in the conventional testing procedure. In agile testing, testers write test cases before the development stage, which accelerates both development and testing. 

Improve Collaboration and Communication

Agile testing allows clear and real-time communication between the development and testing teams, which is neglected in conventional testing. The two teams can collaborate and prevent a lot of complicated problems and glitches. This isn’t possible when the teams perform in silos. 

Integrate Business and Technology Teams

In addition to combining the development and testing teams, agile testing also fetches the technology and business teams together. The technology team has a clear knowledge of the business perspective, allowing them to stay customer-centric and align the development plans with business goals. 

Ensure Desired End-Result

In the traditional waterfall process, teams work in silos, and acquiring the desired end result on the first try is rare. The product has to experience a series of modifications and corrections before it is prepared to be released. This improves the time to market. Agile testing dismantles these silos and speeds up a product launch.

Simplify the Maintenance Process

Agile testing involves continuous testing and resolution of problems, making maintenance easier and cost-effective. Again, multiple developers and testers function simultaneously, which brings many viewpoints to the maintenance process and decreases the risk of errors. 

What are the Different Agile Testing Practices?

Agile testing is the norm in today’s software development industry. However, companies must follow these agile testing best practices to make their testing method more efficient. 

Maintain Code Austerity

While running tests, QA engineers must assure that the austerity of the code is maintained and remains understandable. The code should authorize upgrades and enhancements if required. Also, testers must assure code sanctity and avoid code merge problems. 

Run Repetitive Tests

Agile testing is the most effective when done regularly. Accomplishing recurring tests will allow you to determine every problem and overcome it immediately. Ideally, QA engineers should execute a test after every small code movement. 

Communicate In-Person with Developers

Communication is an important element of the agile methodology. For agile testing to be effective, testers require to communicate with developers in-person to assure both teams are on the same page and there are no distinctions. 

Also Read: CI/CD: Benefits, Challenges, And Best Practices For Your Team

WRAP UP

Agile testing has become the standard among QA engineers, as it allows continuous testing and real-time elimination of errors. By executing agile testing, development teams can overcome traditional testing challenges like high time to market and high maintenance costs. Agile testing goes hand-in-hand with agile development and customer experience, enhances organizational productivity, and business growth. 

Need to implement agile testing? Think no more! TestUnity provides the testing services on-demand, serves with projects of any scale, and is ready to start with a few days’ advance notice. Choose to team up with a QA services provider like TestUnity. Our team of testing experts specializes in QA and has years of experience implementing tests with different testing software. Get in touch with a TestUnity expert today.

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