The Daily Stand-Up Meeting for Testers Part 2

Even if there are project trackers, backlogs, and task boards available for the team to check at their own convenience, daily stand-ups are still necessary to help the project move forward. Meeting face-to-face (or through video) for a short time everyday enhances the communication of a team. The members are allowed to listen to one another, and they get to learn how they are progressing as a unit. Sometimes, drastic changes such as a pivot in directions can take surface from the daily-stand-up, and this will let the team catch on quickly.

How testers can help?

Testers can make the most out of the daily stand-up by using this opportunity to keep the team in line with developing the product increment the right way. The updates given by the developers can also guide testers in re-strategising their test-planning. Testers have a better view of the project than the rest of the team, since they have interacted with the product increment more.

More than simply saying what they have tested and what they plan to test, they can say things that are along the lines of the following:

• I am done executing all the planned tests for User Story 3629. If anyone has thought of more scenarios, then let me know by end-of-day before I endorse it for closure.
• I found a five bugs yesterday, but they screen error is blocking other tests, so that needs to be fixed first.
• The QA environment doesn’t seem to be up to date. Let’s refresh it first before we investigate bugs further and retest the fixes.
• Karen, if you can clarify the acceptance criteria for User Story 4680, then I’ll be able to finish testing it today.

• I was able to figure out the steps for Bug 3637 with John, and have updated the report accordingly. Jane, you should be able to reproduce it now, but I can help clarify it further if you need me too.
• I noticed that User Story 2386 has not yet been started. What do we need to do to start it? Does it have any dependencies?
• Ticket 1357 came up just before this meeting, and it looks very urgent. Let’s take a look at it right away after this.

The testers’ updates would be more helpful if they pinpoint where bottlenecks are, and whether the testers have also cleared some of these impediments for the other team mates. It’s also important to be able to call out who is needed to help address an impediment, if there is already a person in mind.

The daily stand-up is a great opportunity for the team to be able to zoom into the important tasks at hand. If done well, it energises the team and gives them a sense of purpose to work on the project better. Testers help shift the focus by giving their insights on the status of product quality as well as what’s needed to achieve the quality goals.

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Our Book Recommendations

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