Is a Test plan needed in Agile?
The 4th value of the Agile manifesto which refers to “Working solution over comprehensive documentation”. In Agile we have a product road-map which is further broken down into releases and sprints. From the road-map, when we plan what releases we going to have we should be able to start thinking about a few things with regards to a test plan. Particularly from the view of the release and or sprints. Yes, certain things can change but we need to define a test strategy just in time to give us leverage and a sense of a structure when we are ready to start testing our sprint. An Agile test strategy should include:
- Scope – This is the scope for either a release or a sprint. This can change, however it should help in planning the testing for that particular release and or sprint.
- Priority – From the scope that we have been given we should now know what is most important, what are the dependencies, and where should the testing team’s focus reside?
- Risk – What risks are there within the scope and what is already in Production. What can we potentially break, and what does that damage look like? What steps can we take to ensure the risks are mitigated?
- Tools – Again from the scope we are able to know what tests we need and therefore we know what tools we will need to carry out the testing of that sprint or release
- Customers – Who are we affecting, who should we be impersonating when we test?
- Documentation – We should remember our focus is on a working solution with useful documentation. In Agile we don’t document for the sake of documentation.
- Consideration of ALL quadrants.
- Continuously improve from sprint to sprint or release to release
- Definition of done – This is crucial and should be specific to the release and sprint at question
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: