Every member in a cross-functional agile team is responsible for quality output. This would be the primary assumption when describing agile work practices in modern software development frameworks and practices. The software testing professional represents a central and critical member of Scrum teams. Industry experts say that the role of an effective tester extends to coaching and helping team personnel to build requirements, test software functionality, and deliver a complete software product.
High-Quality Test Cases
Members of an agile testing team can drive higher productivity through collaboration and discussions. Such collaboration can extend to writing meaningful test cases as part of the design, writing, and, execution efforts. Testers must use their experience to write a wide range of test cases that ensure the thorough testing of the software under development, which in turn, could lead to the success of a software product.
Better User Stories
Typically, a user story represents a tool in agile software development practices. These stories capture a description of a software feature from the perspective of an end-user – describes the type of end-user, what they want, and why. Essentially, a user story helps create a simplified description of the customer requirements. Hence, user stories are quintessential to ensure the functionality of a software product. Team members of a scrum workgroup must invest collective thought in the development of better user stories. In this context, a software testing company can encourage testers to raise different queries, explore alternative paths to software development, and analyze a range of conditions. The inclusion of professional software testing engineers would also drive a deeper understanding of client expectations, resulting in a superbly functional software package.
Informed Estimations
The inclusion of testing professionals ensures that Scrum teams make informed estimations in their software development programs. This aids developers in the discharge of their professional duties, thereby economizing on the use and deployment of corporate resources such as manpower. This makes teams self-sufficient and helps to promote operational excellence. Test estimations comprise critical questions that examine the duration of a testing session and the attendant costs. In line with this, software testing professionals must assess the resources required to plan and execute various tasks in a project. Further, team members of a testing group must apply their human skills to spur the completion of testing goals and objectives.
Teamwork and Communication
Developers may believe that testing activities act as a bottleneck in agile team environments. This belief can be negated if such teams include testers from the start of a development project. The ensuing flow of communication helps developers and testers execute test cases on time, thereby preventing bottlenecks that could potentially slow down a project. Further, two-way communication and hand-holding efforts allow software testing professionals to coach developers in resting routines, thereby expanding the pool of testers as a project nears completion. Additionally, testers can attend sprint-planning sessions at the onset of a software development project. Daily meetings and execution of short demonstrations to spotlight the contribution of software testing services, would add to the efficacy. As a rule, testing professionals must execute testing throughout the sprint sessions.
Create and Execute
Testers must engage all team personnel in the creation, execution, and maintenance of all types of tests: automated and manual. This would ensure greater familiarity for those involved with agile testing frameworks and mechanisms. Short feedback loops must be instituted, along with testing deployment in environments that mirror the use of the software by the client. Such actions reinforce the assertion that testers must participate in Scrum teams from the start. Certain Scrum projects position dedicated test teams depending on the nature and complexity of the development project. In such scenarios, testing professionals can deploy automation testing tools and frameworks to comply with short delivery timelines.
In Conclusion
These would be the top reasons to create a compelling case for including testers in Scrum teams from the start. Companies must appreciate this fact should they wish to design and deploy outstanding software packages for their clients. Connect with us as the experts in this realm and much more.
Comments(0)