How To Overcome Agile Testing Challenges!!

Agile methodology is one of the most popular and effective of all other testing methods followed these days. We all have experienced some or most of these challenges in our day to day work life and we cannot deny the fact that agile methodology despite having so many advantages brings lots of Agile Testing Challenges too. If you are an agile tester, then this article will not only list all the agile testing challenges but also show you the way to overcome those. Before I dig in, I would like to give you a brief introduction to agile method.

Agile is a methodology in which development and testing are done in iterations which are known as sprints. So you will not get all the requirements at once, it will be in parts and when one part is developed and tested, it is released depending on the sprint duration and so on. Different companies have different sprints duration ranging from 2 weeks to a month, depending on their project. Teams have daily stand up meetings to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page and knows what other team members are doing. Since sprints are short and there is always a tight deadline, customer satisfaction becomes challenging and the priority.

Let’s see some of the challenges and how to overcome these Agile Testing Challenges now:

1) Challenge: Proper automation

when you get the requirements for the sprint, you know what to expect from the developed code. You have to create test cases, execute them, automate them, and prepare a report at the end of the sprint. Lots of stuff within the deadline. Sometimes, it becomes a challenge to complete everything on time.

How to overcome: Planning is the key! When you have got the requirements, start building your test scenarios, talk to developers, and BA’s when you get any doubt. Not only you will save a lot of rewriting efforts later but also, test cases written would be effective.

2) Challenge: Frequently Changing Requirements

As we all know; requirements can be changed anytime in agile methodology. sometimes all the efforts go in vein and you have to restart from the scratch. this will not only make you mentally tired but also reduces the scope of testing due to tight deadlines.

How to overcome: as testers, we need to accept the fact that changing requirements or omitting a story as a whole are the part of agile and we need to adapt to it. We should try our best to test most of the prioritized areas and do a lot of exploratory testing. At the end of the release, we should report all the testing efforts and the areas which are not much tested and are prone to errors or bugs and accordingly decision can be made whether to delay the release or make it happen.

3) Challenge: Incomplete Story Information

When a feature is new or the client is not much sure about the functionality, it becomes challenging to create test cases or do proper testing altogether. Developer would be making a prototype of such feature and as testers, we have to test it to our best knowledge.

How to overcome:whatever incomplete requirements or information is given, try and make test scenarios which are generic and test basic functionality. As the prototype is ready to test, add more scenarios to the existing ones and test the whole thing.

4) Challenge: Compatibility Testing

When an application or software is developed, it is highly recommended to test it on different platforms (could be different operating systems, browsers, devices etc.). Since agile has a limited time for testing, compatibility testing becomes quite challenging.

How to overcome: Automated test cases are the best bet here since they are applicable on all platforms. Try and automate all possible scenarios and run them on all the required platform before the release, this will ensure the compatibility and quality of the product throughout. Also, your efforts and time would be saved.

5) Challenge: Interaction On Daily Basis

When you are working with so many different teams such as developers, managers, Bas and customers, it is a challenge to keep interacting on a daily basis and update everybody on the tasks apart from the daily scrum meetings.

How to overcome: Written communication is the key here! Emails won’t take much time to write and keeping everybody in the loop would not only help in getting everyone on the same page but also, gives you a better understanding of the product and the process followed.

6) Challenge: Skillset

When it comes to testing, both manual and automation play an important role. Testers who are not sound in automation can waste a lot of time in executing the repetitive test cases (regression) and testers who are not much into manual testing can miss important scenarios and hence bugs since no machine can replace human mind and its creativity (thinking out of the box).

How to overcome: it is the demand of testing field to keep yourself updated with the latest technology and know few of the scripting languages and tools for automation. A perfect balance of both manual and automation testing gives the optimum result in agile methodology.

Over to you:

If you find that you don’t have much time for automation then you can document all the manual scenarios at once place and after the release, convert them into automated test cases.  These were the few Agile Testing Challenges and the solution to overcome them. Managing time properly and communication effectively to the different teams will lead you to achieve your deadline smoothly and in my opinion, agile methodology becomes effective when followed properly and overcome these challenges will surely help testers in delivering a quality product and help reaching the client expectations.

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