As Agile development methods enter mainstream, agile testing has become imperative to complete the software development life cycle. Our test automation partner – Borland outlines 5 challenges to agile testing and our views as follows:
- Difficult to keep everyone on the same page
One of the important aspects of agile methodology or development is tying in different teams in a collaborative environment. As development iteration increase, it is important to keep all stakeholders notified on the changes. They also need to quickly see who is doing what, at a given moment, and what is being tested.
- Test Driven Development can be unpopular
Development teams like the flexibility to code that works for them and the software they use. Using test development approach restricts their creative freedom and drives focus more on specifications and test cases.
- Lack of clarity around the role of tester
Following a test driven approach where a developer writes the Test cases can be counter productive, thus raises the question whether to have dedicated team of testers. In which case, defining their roles can be quite cumbersome.
- Unit testing alone is not adequate
Testing agile projects are often iterative. Also, the proverbial “test early and often” demarcates the importance of unit testing.
- Agile project cycles requires multiple test cycles
Unlike a tradition development model where there’s only one phase, agile testing requires several iterative attempts. Which means incurring overheads on several grounds.
We have worked on several testing projects in an agile setting and we found these challenges pervasive. However, our mature practices are designed to address these issues. If you are facing similar challenges with Agile Product Testing, contact us today.
