kurtz182

 Profile Answers by kurtz182 Questions by kurtz182

• Dec 15th, 2009

 

The role of a tester depends on the agile development methodology.  Each methodology approaches the software developement process differently.  That being said, all agile testers are bound by the following principles defined in the Agile Manifesto:

"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
 
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 
- Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."

In alignment with these principles, the role of an agile tester becomes Test Analyst and Creative Explorer. 

An agile tester (as opposed to a developer who performs test activities) must remain involved in every aspect of the development process and not only after the application has been released to the test team for testing.  This means working closely with the development staff to ensure defects are discovered as soon as possible. They evaluate requirements and test to determine how test can make the earliest and most significant impact.  They sit in on reviews, inspections and walkthroughs to provide input that may shed light on static testing from a functional perspective. They work closely with the development staff in all phases of development. And they evaluate test cases or scripts for the manual or automated testing of static tests.

When an application is delivered to the test team, agile testers often perform exploratory testing on the application and learn about it while creating their functional test cases at the same time. In this way, agile testers approach an application with fresh eyes and have no preconceived ideas as to how the the application will function.

Agile testers communicate more with developers and end-users.  They often conduct usability tests with customers.  In general, they ensure that the developing program and final product satisfies their customer's needs and they do this in nearly every phase of the software development life cycle.