Is Agile killing Quality Assurance?
The agile world is expanding and quality assurance (QA) has transformed from “test everything” to “test as quickly as feasible.” The increasing adoption rate of DevOps (specialised software) and Agile is undervaluing the necessity of QA for many teams because these principles focus on quality and speed. Even though the agile methodology calls for QA process and is said to be a part of the sprint team, it holds a unique challenge because performing proper testing strategies and validation is a time-consuming process.
Many organisations having large customer bases refrain from QA altogether. Or if it is usually the case the testing is performed on the outcomes of each sprint team. This process does not aim to test products that will be used not tested as a whole but just as a part. In its existing state – with traditional lab and outsourced testing – quality assurance is indeed killed by agile. It is because the testing and traditional lab are too uneventful to stay in the competition with agile sprint.
In this post, we’re going to discuss the most debated topic which is whether agile is killing QA or not. So without any further ado, let’s get started!
Traditional testing methods fail
Many companies believe that quality assurance is a pitstop on the journey to a charming job, such as product manager, scrum master, or web developer. This leads to a lack of talent where small QA testing teams are unable to test and scale the software at speed. According to an anonymous report, more than 40% of survey respondents said that there is a shortage of test expertise in agile teams and perform testing for agile development.
Using limited resources, internal quality assurance teams are not able to achieve the test coverage required to make sure that bugs are not making their way into production. The variety of platforms such as operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices pose significant challenges for QA testers. So to do this, a dedicated team of QA testers having broad skills, vast experience, and bigger budgets are required.
Offshore models are not lucky enough to keep up with the requirements of an agile environment. But still, they are one of the cheapest ways compared to traditional testing that can’t afford real-world use cases. They take a while to begin and still don’t fit well in the structured process but provide a test coverage that businesses are looking for.
QA can make a comeback
We know that Agile has almost killed traditional QA testing but not all QAs are dying. Many companies have already started using their techniques and testing with automated, real-world, and beta testing.
Beta testing
As we all know, before the product is fully launched and is a common practice for several companies, Beta testing releases it to a subset of users. This process gives businesses a huge test base with which they need to work. The limitation is that it can be unmanaged and inconsistent because QA testers aren’t vetted and redundant bugs are shown. Various types of businesses whether small or large have started gaining the benefits of beta testing, but businesses with loyal users are getting more realistic feedback and better results. Brands can also perform beta testing by dedicating internal resources and managing responses with a partner whom they are planning to work with.
And if we allow agile teams to use additional resources that easily scale then each of these testing practices helps to keep the developers moving quickly and adjusting to the high customer demand. Each testing method works best when it is managed by a dedicated resource who can integrate testing and make sure that all the bugs and errors are managed correctly.
We can say that quality assurance testing is still an important aspect in delivering the best experiences and fulfilling customers’ demands. Customers expect to have a digital and more improved product over time too with each new update. If they are not satisfied, the software switching cost is basically null. With no space for error, businesses can turn to beta testing to make sure that they can provide high-quality results and faster development.
Automated testing
For many businesses, test automation has become an essential part and a popular option that they never want to overlook. According to a survey, the usage of automated testing has increased in the past few years across all industry domains. So it is hard to say that automation has replaced internal testing, but it does extend the strategy by accepting regression and smoke testing without any human intervention.
At an initial stage, having smaller teams is a good way to start with an off-the-shelf enterprise solution to run quickly and address bugs along the way. If you have more mature and dedicated testing teams, they might benefit from an open-source automation framework, and increase flexibility, and customisation. But all this needs advanced technical professionals and a longer runway to create a solution that has the ability to manage an automation solution at scale. When manual work or human intervention is needed, real-world and beta testing can help you to fill in the gaps.
Real-world testing
As the name suggests, real-world testing tests with real users. It performs real-world testing on users’ devices in their home environments to help them to locate edge use cases and functional points that are available in the real world. Software testers and quality assurance testers are segmented by demographic and expertise. This testing technique can be performed quickly to help agile teams to add more testers to their demand for peak periods.
We can say that real-world testing is a practical resolution for companies who are intending to grow test coverage and have limited resources to replicate real-world scenarios. And the solution to this problem is searching for a fully managed partner that matches your desired customer personas to take the pressure off internal teams and augment the current testing processes.
Key Takeaway
The supply chain needs to retain quality assurance within their operations as consumers want confidence in the products they are buying and who they are buying them from. Bad reviews from customers who have received low quality, or lower than expected, items will talk about their poor experience and this can do severe damage to the reputation of a business.
Upskill your quality assurance team with IoSCM. With units of study designed to improve awareness of the purpose and necessity of quality assurance within a modern business, an IoSCM professional qualification will advance your professional capabilities, or those of your team. Contact us today T: 0800 1422 522 E: info@ioscm.com or LiveChat to a member of our Course Advisory Team.