Forrester states that 61% of organizations have implemented Agile environments for over five years to ensure software quality.
Quality Assurance (QA) embeds testing throughout Product Development to deliver high-quality results and achieve business objectives.
Why shouldn’t you overlook Agile Development Quality Assurance for staying competitive? Let’s find out!
What is Agile Development Quality Assurance?
Agile QA is crucial throughout the entire Product Development cycle, not just at the end.
Its goal is to ensure that the product works as expected while it’s being built. As a result, problems can be identified and addressed early, when they’re easier and less expensive to resolve.
To achieve this goal, Agile teams work in short development cycles, called sprints. These cycles typically last 2 to 4 weeks. During each sprint, continuous testing identifies potential issues as soon as they arise.
This approach uses a combination of different testing methods, such as:
- Automated testing: These tests verify that the code behaves as expected. They’re useful for repetitive tasks, such as checking if a login function works every time new code is added.
- Manual testing: Here, testers go through the product to catch things that automated tests might miss, like design issues, usability problems or unexpected bugs.
- Exploratory testing: This is an unscripted form of testing where QAs actively look for hidden bugs by trying out different actions. As a result, they can uncover issues that wouldn't be found by following a script.
- Regression testing: These often-automated tests verify whether new code changes have broken existing features. It can ensure updates don’t undo previous progress.
By combining testing methods, Agile teams can develop high-quality products that meet user expectations. At the same time, they can enforce long-term reliability and consistency.
How Can Agile QA Ensure Quality?
1. Ownership
Developers, testers (QAs) and stakeholders share ownership of product quality. This collaborative approach ensures that quality is built into the product from the beginning.
QAS should be involved early in the process, especially during sprint planning meetings. When they join these planning sessions, they can help anticipate potential issues.
If the team is about to build a payment feature, a QA might ask, “What happens if a user tries to pay in a foreign currency and there is a currency conversion error?”
By raising this question early, the team can plan for error handling and edge cases up front, avoiding costly bugs and rework later.
2. Shift Left
The "shift left" approach means testing is integrated from the start.
Instead of waiting until the product is finished, QAs work alongside developers from the outset to ensure compliance with these rules.
By "shifting left," Agile QA helps create a faster feedback loop, reducing surprises and leading to more reliable products.
3. Adaptability
In Agile, things move quickly, and priorities can change rapidly! Agile testing should be flexible and adaptable.
Thanks to this approach, QAs can adjust their test plans and test cases if requirements change mid-project.
This adaptability enables the delivery of high-quality products, even when direction changes.
4. Automation
Automated testing is crucial to move faster without sacrificing quality.
Manual QA is beneficial because teams can identify bugs or errors that automated tests may miss.
However, Automated QA can run checks automatically, saving a significant amount of time and effort.
By harnessing automation tools, teams can run tests to instantly verify whether features are functioning correctly after each code update.
5. Customer-Centric
Agile testing also understands how real users actually behave, including mistakes, habits and unexpected actions.
Testing products under real situations enables teams to identify frustrating usability issues that might be overlooked in more rigorous testing methods.
Types of Agile QA Methodologies
1. Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Test-Driven Development flips the traditional order of coding and testing. Instead of writing code first and testing it later, teams write the tests first.
In this method, teams create small, focused unit tests to verify that a feature functions properly.
Once the tests are complete, developers begin writing the code, ensuring it passes the unit tests.
This method ensures that the code meets technical standards and reduces errors in foundational components, making it easier to maintain and expand over time.
2. Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
In Acceptance Test-Driven Development, the team describes how the product should behave from the user’s POV.
This test focuses on what the user needs to experience, not how the code is written.
Once the test is defined, the development team writes code to make that scenario work, improving it to handle real-world situations.
This approach is more user- and business-focused, ensuring that all features meet customer needs and align with the product’s goals.
3. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
Behavior-driven development builds products around how users actually interact with them.
This method focuses on technical details by using plain language, ensuring everyone on the team understands it.
In this manner, teams ensure the product behaves the way users expect, every time new code is introduced.
It's worth noting that BDD bridges the gap between business goals and technical implementation, building features aligned with user needs, not just internal specifications.
Why Should You Choose Agile QA Over Traditional Methods?
Instead of treating quality as an afterthought, Agile QA considers it in every sprint.
For instance, automated regression tests guard against existing issues, while exploratory testing uncovers hidden problems before they snowball.
In this manner, an Agile approach eliminates bottlenecks when projects require changes in priorities, tight timelines, or when faster feedback from stakeholders is needed.
Agile Development promotes daily collaboration, transforming QA into a shared mission.
Further, its principles prioritize customer satisfaction by frequently aligning products with evolving user stories and requirements.
In contrast, traditional testing approaches typically test at the end of a cycle, which can result in mismatches between the product and customer expectations.
For example, you can use waterfall when dealing with projects that have clear and fixed specifications, especially in teams that must follow strict regulations.
Agile QA vs Waterfall QA
Conclusion
Agile QA isn’t just a process; it’s a strategic asset. By embedding continuous testing early, teams slash risks early and ship higher-quality products.
However, the process alone isn’t enough; success hinges on partnering with experts who align QA with your vision.
Capicua embeds Agile Development QA into your workflow, building quality in from day one.
Reach out to turn quality into your competitive edge!
