😁Tester's Role in Scrum

In Scrum Agile methodology, the tester plays an active role throughout the sprint cycle collaborating closely with the Scrum team. The tester writes and executes test cases to validate user stories during each sprint, provides feedback on story acceptance criteria, identifies defects, participates in sprint planning and retrospectives, and helps optimize the testing process to deliver high quality increments.

The tester has an agile mindset focused on continuous testing, adaptation, and transparency to support the team in delivering working software iteratively at a sustainable pace.

Phases of the Testers Role

Sprint Planning

• In sprint planning, a tester should pick a user story from the product backlog that should be tested.

• As a tester, he/she should decide how many hours (Effort Estimation/Story Points) it should take to finish testing for each of the selected user stories.

• As a tester, he/she must know what sprint goals are.

• As a tester, contribute to the prioritizing process

Sprint

• Support developers in unit testing

• Test user story when completed. Test execution is performed in a lab where both tester and developer work hand in hand. Defects are logged in the Defect Management tool which are tracked on a daily basis. Defects can be conferred and analyzed during the scrum meeting. Defects are retested as soon as it is resolved and deployed for testing

• As a tester, he/she attends all daily standup meetings to speak up

• As a tester, he/ she can bring any backlog item that cannot be completed in the current sprint and put to the next sprint

• Tester is responsible for developing automation scripts. He/She schedules automation testing with Continuous Integration (CI) system. Automation receives importance due to short delivery timelines. Test Automation can be accomplished by utilizing various open-source or paid tools available in the market. This proves effective in ensuring that everything that needs to be tested was covered. Sufficient Test coverage can be achieved with close communication with the team.

• Review CI automation results and send Reports to the stakeholders

• Executing non-functional testing for approved user stories

• Coordinate with customer and product owner to define acceptance criteria for Acceptance Tests

• At the end of the sprint, the tester also does acceptance testing(UAT) in some cases and confirms testing completeness for the current sprint

Sprint Retrospective

• As a tester, he will figure out what went wrong and what went right in the current sprint

• As a tester, he identifies lessons learned and best practices

Common Interview Question

What challenges do testers face in Agile? How can they be overcome?

⛔ Testers face many challenges in Agile:

♻️ Rapid changes - Overcome by automating regression 🤖, prioritizing 🧮 and faster feedback cycles 📣

🔎 Exploratory testing - Improve with pair/mob testing 👥, more automation 🤖 and flexibility ✅

✒️ Unclear requirements - Involve in planning 📝, improve communication 🗣 and document assumptions ✏️

🧮 Estimation issues - Track actual efforts 📈, adjust for next Sprint and learn from mistakes 🧠

However, the key is for testers to adapt to this fast-paced environment ♻️ by:

🛠 Building the right testing skills and mindset - like speed 🏃‍♀️, value 📏, risk analysis 📉 and communication 🗣

🚀 Taking on challenges and constantly optimizing processes

♻️ Evolving their roles 👨 from just "finding defects" to driving quality 📈 and enabling productivity ⏩

👥 Collaborating closely with developers 🤝 and product owners

🛠 Automating regression 🤖 and any repeatable tasks

💭 Thinking like real users to find critical issues 🔎

With these adjustments, testers can thrive 📈 in Agile by focusing on what truly adds value - strategic testing 🗺, risk reduction ⚠️, and fast feedback ⏩.