From Pure Agile to Agile Testing Practices

In the fast-paced world of software development, projects need agility to respond quickly to market changes, which is only possible when the organizations and project management improve efficiency, reduce waste, and deliver value to their customers fastest. A methodology that has become very popular in this digital era is the Agile methodology. Agile strives to reduce efforts, yet it delivers high-quality features or value in each build.

Within the Agile spectrum, there exists a concept known as "Pure Agile Methodology," often referred to simply as "Pure Agile," which is a refined and uncompromising approach to Agile project management. It adheres strictly to the core values of the Agile Manifesto.

Adherence to the Agile Manifesto includes favoring individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working solutions over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. Though agile is being used worldwide for most software projects, the way it is implemented is not always pure agile. We must be able to discern the Pure Agile if the way it is implemented is seamless. Hence, that is also known as "Agile in its truest form."

Within the Agile framework, Agile Testing plays a pivotal role in ensuring that software products are not only developed faster but also meet high-quality standards. Agile testing is a new-age approach to software testing to keep pace with the agile software development process. Agile testing is an iterative and incremental that applies the principles of agile software development to the practice of testing. It goes beyond traditional testing methods, becoming a collaborative and continuous effort throughout the project lifecycle. Agile testing is a collaborative, team-oriented process. Unlike traditional software testing, Agile testing tests systems in small increments, often developing tests before writing the code or feature. Below are the ways it is much different than traditional testing:

1. Early involvement: Agile testing applies a 'test-first' approach. Testers are involved in the project from the beginning itself, i.e., requirements discussions, user story creation, and sprint planning. This assures that testing considerations are taken into account from the outset.
2. Integration: In Agile testing, activities are performed with development simultaneously rather than driving them separately in the testing phase. The biggest advantage of having Agile testing is defects are detected and addressed at an early stage, which eventually helps to reduce the cost, time, and effort.
3. User-centric: Agile testing has the most preference and importance for customer feedback, and the testing effort gets aligned as per the feedback given by the customer.
4. Feedback-driven: Agile testing has the significance of continuous feedback. This enduring feedback and communication ensures that everyone is aligned on project goals and quality standards.
5. TDD: As we know, test-driven development is common practice in Agile, where tests are prepared before the code is written or developed to ensure that the code meets the acceptance criteria. This promotes a "test-first" mindset among developers.
6. Regression testing: As the product evolves with each iteration, regression testing becomes critical. New functionality changes or features shouldn't introduce regression, which can break existing functionality.
7. Minimal documentation: Agile Testing often relies on lightweight documentation, focusing more on working software than extensive test plans and reports. Test cases may be captured as code or in simple, accessible formats.
8. Collaboration: All Agile teams are cross-functional, with all the groups of people and skills needed to deliver value across traditional organizational silos, largely eliminating handoffs and delays.

The term "Agile testing quadrants" refers to a concept introduced by Brian Marick, a software testing expert, to help teams and testers think systematically about the different types of testing they need to perform within an Agile development environment. At Scale, many types of tests are required to ensure quality: tests for code, interfaces, security, stories, larger workflows, etc. By describing a matrix (having four quadrants defined across two axes), many types of tests are necessary to ensure quality: tests for code, interfaces, security, stories, larger workflows, etc. That guides the reasoning behind these tests. Extreme Programming (XP) proponent and Agile Manifesto co-author Brian Marick helped pioneer agile testing.

Agile Testing: Quadrants

Q1- Contains unit and component tests. The test uses Test-Driven Development (TDD).

Q2- Feature-level and capability-level acceptance tests confirm the aggregate behavior of user stories. The team automates these tests using BDD techniques.

Q3- Contains exploratory tests, user acceptance tests, scenario-based tests, and final usability tests. these tests are often manual.

Q4- To verify if the system meets its Non-functional Requirements (NFRs). Like Load and performance testing