Test Plan is prepared at the time of Release Planning and is revised at every Sprint Planning. It acts as a guide to ensure complete test coverage. Typical Contents of a Test Plan are as follows: • Test Strategy • Test Environment • Test Coverage • Scope of Testing • Test Effort and Schedule • Testing Tools In Agile Projects, all the Team Members are accountable for the quality of the product. Hence, everyone participates in test planning. A tester’s responsibility is to provide necessary direction and mentor the rest of the team with their testing expertise.
User Stories
User Stories are an integral part of Agile Projects, as testers participate in their creation. The goal is to create stories that bring value to the customer, cover different possible behaviors of the system and are testable. For this purpose, testers must ensure that all the User Stories have clear Acceptance Criteria. User Stories are not testing work products in principle, but testers are responsible for ensuring that the stories meet the required criteria. This will help ensure that the product is of the highest quality and will satisfy the customer.
Manual and Automated Tests
– During the first run of Testing, Manual Tests such as Unit Tests, Integration Tests, Functional Tests, Non-Functional Tests and Acceptance Tests are used. Subsequent runs of Testing are automated. – Test Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) are two approaches to software development in which tests are written first to fail, and code is developed and tested to ensure the tests pass. – In other Development methods, the Testers collaborate with the rest of the Team to ensure Test Coverage. In all the types of methods, Continuous integration takes place, which includes continuous integration testing. The team can decide when and what tests are to be automated. – Automating the tests requires effort and time, but the resulting automated tests significantly reduce the repetitive testing effort and time during the iterations of the Agile Project. This in turn facilitates the team to pay more attention to the other required activities. – In Scrum, the iterations are time-boxed. If a User Story testing cannot be completed in a particular Sprint, the tester can report in the daily standup meeting that the user story needs to be kept pending to the next Sprint.
Test Results
Testing Scope -What was tested and what was not tested during the project -Defect Analysis and Root Cause Analysis -Status of Regression Testing after Defect Fixes -Issues and the corresponding Resolutions -Pending Issues, if any -Modifications required in Test Strategy -Test Metrics Test Results in Agile Projects are mainly generated by automated tools. Testers review these Test Results Logs and maintain a Test Summary Report for each sprint or release. This Test Summary Report should contain information on: -Testing Scope: An overview of what was tested and what was not tested -Defect Analysis: Detailed analysis of any defects found and the root cause -Regression Testing Status: Status of the regression testing after any defect fixes -Issues and Resolution: Any issues identified and the resolution taken -Pending Issues: Any pending issues that need to be addressed -Modifications to Test Strategy: Any modifications needed to the test strategy -Test Metrics: Metrics to measure the success of the test results
Test Metrics Reports
Test Metrics Reports in Agile Projects provide valuable insights into the progress of the development process. The metrics can help to identify issues, measure quality and assess the effectiveness of the process. The following metrics are generally included in the report for each Sprint: 1. Test Effort: This metric measures the amount of time and resources dedicated to testing during the Sprint. 2. Test Estimation Accuracy: This metric measures the accuracy of the initial estimation for the testing effort. 3. Test Coverage: This metric measures the percentage of the code that is covered by tests. 4. Automated Test Coverage: This metric measures the percentage of the code that is covered by automated tests. 5. No. of Defects: This metric measures the total number of defects discovered during the Sprint. 6. Defect Rate (No. of Defects per User Story Point): This metric measures the number of defects found per user story point. 7. Defect Severity: This metric measures the severity of the defects found during the Sprint. 8. Time to Fix a Defect in the same Sprint (It costs 24x as much to fix a bug that escapes the current sprint): This metric measures the time taken to fix a defect within the same Sprint. 9. No. of Defects fixed in the same Sprint: This metric measures the number of defects that are fixed within the same Sprint. 10. Completion of Acceptance Testing by Customer within the Sprint: This metric measures the completion of acceptance testing by the customer within the Sprint.
Sprint Review and Retrospective Reports
Testers are an integral part of the Sprint Review and Retrospective Reports. They provide key information and feedback which is necessary to ensure the overall success of the project. The typical contributions made by testers include: 1. Test Metrics: Testers present a detailed analysis of the testing metrics, such as bug rate, execution rate, etc., and the overall progress of the testing process. 2. Test Result Logs: Testers review the test results logs and present any noteworthy findings. 3. What went right and what can be improved from Testing Point of View: Testers provide insight on what went well and areas that may need improvement from a testing perspective. 4. Best Practices: Testers offer guidelines and best practices to ensure the highest quality of testing and to maximize the efficiency of the testing process. 5. Lessons Learned: Testers share the lessons learned during the testing process, so that the same mistakes are not repeated in the future. 6. Issues: Testers present any unresolved issues and provide possible solutions. 7. Customer Feedback: Testers provide feedback from customers and stakeholders which can be used to improve the product.