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scrum testing
Mike Jackowski Updated: 10 Sep 2022 4 min to read

Agile SCRUM Testing – 8 Best Practices to Follow

In today’s software development world, speed and quality need to go hand in hand. Easier said than done – one may think. Or is it? To make sure nothing halts your product plans (and threatens your deadlines), you need to instate a sound scrum development process across your entire team. This can be achieved through continuous scrum testing.

In this article, you’ll learn about:

  • What is scrum testing?
  • Roles and responsibilities in scrum testing
  • 8 best practices to follow during scrum testing

Testing in software development is a crucial step because it improves the program’s performance and consistency as it operates. What’s more, a scrum testing strategy allows you to avoid blindly, taking on significant risks such as customer alienation, brand injury, competitive threats, and product revenue loss.

Keep reading to learn more about scrum testing and the 8 best practices to follow when you use it.

What is scrum testing?

Scrum testing is an agile method that regularly re-evaluates the software’s performance and usability.

It does this as you go so that any changing development needs can be modified and revised. However, scrum testing is unique because it isn’t carried out by specific testers assigned to assess the program after completion. Instead, the method utilizes three different roles, ensuring that the program is at its peak performance upon release.

While traditional testing is often done separately from programming, scrum testing looks to integrate the two. Testers for the scrum method, also known as the Development Team, have a shared team goal and merely work to build the product and the other team members. Along the way, they test it as their primary specialization. However, their main goal is to build up the product, not to tear it down by finding bugs or faulty pieces of the program. It creates a more collaborative environment and ultimately enables testing throughout development.

Roles and responsibilities in agile scrum testing

1. Product Owner

The Product Owner is the individual on the team who differentiates between the ideal (would-be-nice) and critical (must-have) elements of the product in development. They ultimately define the features that will be incorporated, and they prioritize or deprioritize the features according to the market value and profitability of the product. Their responsibility lies in how profitable the product is.

2. Scrum Master

The Scrum Master serves as the team manager and looks after the team’s productivity. They coordinate the roles and functions of the other members of the team. Additionally, they maintain the block list and remove barriers during development.

3. Development Team

The Development Team is crucial to the development program (hence the name) because, in most cases, they know the product better than anyone else.

scrum testing

They’re the best fit to do the testing themselves because of this, and the team includes developers and designers who often serve in a dual-role as testers.

As Scrum operates on a schedule or short-fixed schedule releases known as Sprints, the Development Team can do everything within the project’s boundaries to meet the goal in this timeline.

8 best practices to follow during scrum testing 

1. Have a single engineer run the test.

The best way to avoid missing anything in your test is to have a single engineer run it. This way, if a bug or regression surfaces, they’re familiar with the issue because they’ve seen any that have already occurred as they’ve tested the program.

2. Treat bugs in new features and regressions in existing features differently.

These problems aren’t the same and shouldn’t be treated as such. When you find a bug, take the time to understand the error and fix it. However, if you come across a regression where something that worked previously no longer works, then it’s likely that you’ll see it time and time again. In this case, it’s not worth just fixing the error here. You’ll want to create an automated test to protect against regression in the future.

3. Invite developers and QA teams to work together.

During exploratory testing, you’ll want your teams working together to maximize your results.

scrum testing - q&a team work

Teamwork is crucial!

Remember, the more collaboration you have between the different team members, the more likely you are to have any issues discovered early on because various individuals with differing skill sets have the opportunity to see your program.

4. Prepare ready-to-use test scenarios in the user-testing phase.

To make it more realistic in the testing phase, prepare different roles that your real-life user could be playing. For example, use various user flows so that your software gets a little bit of variance. It will give you an idea of whether or not it runs appropriately in different scenarios.

5. Test the product on different types of equipment and software.

It is the best way to prepare your program for real-life users who won’t use a single platform.

Try it on Mac and PC. Test it on different browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.

The more places you test it, the higher the likelihood of discovering all the bugs and regressions.

6. Leverage testers as active contributors in planning and requirements analysis.

Who knows the most about your program? It’s most likely your testers! Utilize their knowledge as you analyze your program and plan for the future.

7. Promote the importance of testers and encourage continuous feedback.

Your testers are vital because they help develop the program and check the work as they go to ensure quality. Encourage feedback from both your programmers and your customers. It will enable the testers to continuously improve the product based on the feedback and any bugs and regressions they find.

8. Leverage automation testing as a way to do regression testing.

If you noticed a regression and want to know whether your changes resulted in a fix, automation testing is a great way to do it. Automated testing allows you to run a pre-scripted test that compares actual results with the expected result. If your solution worked, your automated result would let you know!

Final thoughts on scrum testing

Testing is necessary to discover whether or not a program can be used properly. Utilizing scrum testing allows the project to be enhanced through testing that’s contributed by testers who are integrated as part of the team throughout the entire project – rather than at the end. This approach ultimately has several best practices that invite collaboration, feedback, and specific methods to correct bugs or regressions.

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SCRUM is our leading methodology in which we work. If you want to find out why it works, check out our dedicated scrum page.
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Mike Jackowski

Operating Brother

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