Quality Assurance In Agile Methodology

Posted On: 13 March 2024

Quality assurance (QA) plays an integral role in Agile methodology. It guarantees the quality of software solutions and aligns with Agile's rapid and flexible development processes. Quality assurance in agile methodology emphasizes starting quality checks early in project cycles. This approach enables continuous improvement and ensures alignment with customer goals. It involves early team involvement, continuous feedback, and collaboration throughout the project.

In this blog, we will showcase:

What is Agile Methodology in Quality Assurance?
Best Practices for Agile QA
How to implement QA in agile methodology?
Challenges and Solutions of Quality Assurance in Agile
Responsibilities of an Agile QA Testing Engineer
Conclusion

What is Agile Methodology in Quality Assurance?

Agile QA testing is founded on many important ideas that ensure quality is integrated throughout the software development lifecycle. This includes:

Early and frequent testing: Unlike previous techniques, testing begins on day one and is carried out iteratively.
Continuous feedback: Regular stakeholder reviews and feedback loops guarantee that the product meets the users needs.
Cross functional collaboration: QA professionals collaborate closely with developers, business analysts, and users to promote understanding and promptly address issues.

Best Practices for Agile QA

To ensure Agile quality metrics, consider these best practices:

Early Involvement: QA teams should be involved from the start of the project’s lifetime to understand needs and establish quality standards.
Automation: Automate testing for repeated processes to save time and reduce human error.
Shift-Left Testing: Begin testing early in development to detect and resolve issues faster.

How to implement QA in agile methodology?

Establishing effective Agile quality management processes involves:

Creating a Flexible QA Strategy: Customize your testing methodologies to support rapid development cycles.
Managing Test Environments: Having an identical test environment to the production environment helps detect possible issues early on.
Automated and Manual Testing: Balancing between manual and automation is crucial. Automated testing deals with regression, performance, and load testing. Manual testing suits exploratory, usability, and ad hoc testing scenarios.

Challenges and Solutions of Quality Assurance in Agile

Some common challenges in Agile quality assurance services include:

Time Constraints: Agile sprints are fast-paced, leaving limited time for thorough testing.
Solution: Prioritize test cases based on risk and business impact to manage time effectively.
Maintaining Quality with Rapid Releases: Frequent releases can be challenging.
Solution: Leverage continuous integration and automated testing tools to maintain a steady pace without compromising quality.

Responsibilities of an Agile QA Testing Engineer

Agile promotes continuous improvement in business and QA processes, underlining QA's critical role in software development. QA engineers have many responsibilities, highlighting their importance in maintaining software quality.

Requirement Analysis

It occurs earlier than the traditional methods to prevent underestimating the requirement’s impact. This proactive approach ensures the software meets the core needs like the client’s login functionality, without having the latest technology trends as a barrier.

It also accommodates the evolution of requirements, such as introducing multiple login methods: OTP, username/password, MPIN, SSO).

Test Plan Creation

This responsibility concerns ‘How to ensure quality in agile projects.’ The quality assurance process dictates when and where to create test plans and test environments. Testers must also set timetables for their test plans, tools, and methodology. An agile method requires estimating and developing a strategy to support a long-term process. It addresses changes and ensures the testing strategy matches this process.

Test Case creation

In Agile, requirements are broken down into epics and stories, similar to how testers create scenarios and test cases by analyzing feature parameters. This process requires investment in time and resources. Test automation is employed to avoid repetitive tasks, though it still necessitates human oversight.

The principle is clear: as requirements evolve, so must our testing strategies and tools. Automation involves coding test cases or using no-code tools for creating test suites and executable scenarios, ensuring adaptability to future changes with minimal time and cost.

Test Case Execution

Manual testing relies heavily on human judgment, including the application environment and capturing proof of tests. Due to defects, cross-browser testing, and varying parameters, frequent retests can present challenges. It's crucial to test new features thoroughly and automate them for future regression testing needs.

Defect Logging, Fix, and Reverification

The goal of QA is to identify and fix issues promptly. Due to the pesticide paradox, repeating the same tests may miss new defects, necessitating regular updates to test cases for both manual and automated testing. A robust test automation framework is essential to align QA processes with agile methodology, ensuring continuous improvement in software quality.

Conclusion

There is more than just authoring test cases for a QA working in agile methodology. They are the representatives for product owners and ensure quality products are delivered to the client.

Venkata Raghunandan Raghammudi

QA Engineer | Legato Health Technologies

Passionate Software Tester with 5+ years of experience in Software Testing. Leads and mentors Software Testers implementing quality assurance and quality-control methodologies in multiple products to ensure compliance with QA standards.