Embedded QA in Scrum

Many products which are developed using different Software Development Life Cycles—from Waterfall to Agile Model—are released without performing enough testing due to delivery deadlines and shortage of skillset necessary to minimize these problems. For developers of such projects who choose to employ automated in-target software testing, the challenge is to find tools that are well integrated into their embedded development environment. Tools with this level of integration lend themselves to more efficient testing and rectification of discovered problems.

The role of QA is increasingly critical in modern Software Development Life Cycles like Scrum. Testers can play a distinct role and drive product development by creating acceptance tests before code is even written. Working closely with development, the Scrum team drives the release of the project.

QA’s role—to test the software being built by the Scrum team(s) and assure product quality—comes with some challenges, including:
      • QA working on detached mode
      • Delay in shipping product
      • Excessive work load
      • Reduced/No scope for automation
      • Compromised quality

To overcome these issues, fully embedding QA into the Scrum team has the following benefits:
      • Testing each increment of code immediately as it is finished
      • Whole team is responsible for quality
      • Quality objectives defined by QA with buy in from the whole team
      • Cross pollination (QA learn Development traits/practices; Development get exposure to QA mindset and test techniques)
      • Releasable software at the end of a sprint
      • Embedded QA is not one single resource carrying out all quality/automation tasks for the entire Scrum team
      • Reduces project management overhead, increases Development and QA interaction, and improves product quality

In this Knowledge Sharing article, Jitesh Anand, Chaithra Thimmappa, Vishwanath Channaveerappa, Varun AdemaneMutuguppe, and Neil O’Toole cover implementation, roles, responsibilities, challenges, and benefits of Embedded QA in detail.

Read the full article.