Upgraded testing tasks
When a team decides to go Agile, gone are the days where the only things testers will do includes creating test plans, writing and executing test cases, and reporting and retesting defects. They will need to collaborate with every stakeholder – customers, product owner, and developers alike – in making sure that the application will be built the way it was envisioned to be.
As opposed to requirements specifications documents worked on by business analysts with clients, Agile teams come up with features or user stories, depending on the Agile framework being used. Everyone in the team is expected to help contribute in shaping these backlog items. Part of being a great tester is having the ability to see things from a user’s perspective, and these insights could help enhance the acceptance and done criteria. Testers need to work with the product owner in defining backlog items for the team. They must also work with the developers and analysts in understanding the complexity of how the product should be made.
Multi-skilling will come a long way
This is not a hard requirement for Agile team members, as having a role to focus on is better and more efficient. However, given the small team sizes some Agile projects have, it pays to support one another by learning what another team member does. Not only will it save the project when a team member is not available for work, it will also give a fresh perspective for the tester in terms of testing the product. For example, knowing the back-end system will let the tester check the data and the transactions that interact with the data, even before the UI can be built.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: