In Agile Development World, testing is thoroughly integrated throughout the lifecycle; testing the software continually throughout its development. Though, Agile development does not have a separate test phase as such, developers are much more highly employed in testing and writing automated repeatable unit tests to validate their code.

Apart from looking only to better quality software, it’s highly essential to support the principle of small, iterative and incremental releases. With automated repeatable unit tests, testing can be done as a part of build; assuring that all features are functioning correctly each and every time built is created. In addition, the builds must be regular, so that integration is done as you go too. The main objective behind these principles is, to keep the software in releasable condition all throughout the development, so that it can be delivered on time, whenever appropriate.

The XP (eXtreme Programming) urged test driven development and writing tests before writing the software. But testing must not be applied by developers only after the development. In Agile development, the role of a tester is keener to quality assurance than purely testing. This is intensified further by the lightweight strategy to requirements in agile development and more stress laid on conversation and collaboration to clear up requirements more than the traditional approach of specifications and documentation.

What does it mean for Agile tester – In a traditional development environment, it can be indicated that testers could test the software meeting the specifications but the product could still be of poor quality, may be due to poorly specified requirement or if specified properly but not a very good idea to be in that place. Just a specification does not necessarily make the product good. In agile development, by rendering small incremental releases and by measuring progress only by working software, the acid test is visioning the software and only then you can determine, whether it is of good quality or not.

Thus, Agile development calls for more judgment from a tester, the more expertise application about what’s good or not, the capability to be more flexible and having the assurance to work more from your own knowledge of what good looks like. It’s just not a scenario of following a test script but making sure that the software does exactly same as it says in the specifications. Finally, for all these reasons, Agile testing is just not meant for dummies. Hope, after reading this post, you have cleared your doubts.