The Most Common Gaps in Agile Testing

Agile testing is a proven concept. In use for more than two decades, Agile’s popularity continues today as software providers struggle to get quality applications in front of customers as soon as possible. Modern Agile testers are part of a team producing quality software iteration by iteration as architects and overseers of quality, but the whole team shares in that responsibility.

Delivery speed, customer satisfaction and high quality are all staples of modern application delivery. When speed and quality collide, that’s where testing gaps form. Mature Agile testing teams learn to manage gaps during the development cycle to prevent delivery delays and poor customer experiences. That said, it takes quite a bit of collective effort.

Read on to learn more about why Agile testing gaps form. Get tips on how to prevent gaps from expanding and causing delays or quality issues. 

Key concepts for Agile testers

Agile testing comes with a slew of benefits for testing teams, customers, developers and the business itself. Testing and development occur simultaneously, so there’s no need to schedule separate internal testing efforts. Teams might choose to outsource security, performance or additional testing needs as warranted. The team conducts its work during a shared development sprint or iteration — one team and one schedule. 

Agile testers can use a wide variety of testing methods to support customer interests during testing. Some key Agile testing concepts including the following: 

Continuous testing. Agile deploys continuous testing that fits the team. Continuous testing can include mature test automation balanced with manual testing. It might also consist of automated tests built into the codebase, or a combination of both. The point is that testing continues from the start of development to the end of the iteration. There’s no break in the action; testing continues from sprint to sprint. 

Team collaboration and responsibility: Agile teams must adapt working habits and styles that support collaborative work. There must be a shared responsibility for application or product quality. Testing occurs during development rather than being crammed into the last 10 minutes before the code deploys to production. Every team member, from product design to management, coders and testers, works together to support customers by delivering a high-quality application. 

Ongoing feedback: Continuous testing methods promote ongoing feedback from stakeholders and potential customers. Feedback comes from testers, developers, customer support personnel, operations, customers or other team members. Ongoing feedback helps eliminate functionality that customers don’t want or need. Crowdtesting providers, such as Applause®, help surface feedback by enabling real customers to test and/or assess your products in the wild. This can be a valuable source of feedback previously out of the team’s reach.

Cleaner code and reduced technical debt: When teams code and test collaboratively within each iteration, the codebase tends to be cleaner. Clean codebases introduce little, if any, technical debt, as long as all changes are made within the sprint. No more managing thousands of defects that never get fixed. 

Customer-centric testing: Agile testing teams focus on delivering value to customers. Test scenarios for each iteration reflect real customer usage patterns and configuration variations. Tests don’t simply rely on a specification or requirements. Focused customer-centric testing improves customer satisfaction and provides positive business value. 

Done well, Agile testing catches defects much earlier and reduces the cost of fixing defects reported after release. When test automation successfully automates repetitive testing tasks, test coverage improves. Additionally, strong test automation frees up more testing time for additional exploratory test coverage. 

How testing gaps form

True change in software development teams takes time and requires significant alterations to working habits and mindset. Teams changing over to Agile testing will struggle. They will struggle to let go of established work routines, while at the same time managing the pressure of releasing high-quality code at a rapid pace.

Agile testing gaps develop when teams prioritize delivery speed over quality, or when defects are not fixed within the iteration and roll over to the next sprint. The nature of Agile is also partly to blame. Agile enables change. Changing requirements throughout sprints creates challenges. Team members may find themselves expecting different requirements or functionality. It’s not easy managing changing requirements, especially once coding and testing have started. 

Brittle or failing test automation also introduces delays and gaps. It takes significant time to analyze script failures and determine whether a defect exists or if the script is invalid.

Test automation — with or without AI technology — can be a blessing or a nightmare. Some test automation projects have been shelved due to time and resource constraints spent on managing and developing scripts that fail to perform. 

Common Agile testing gaps to watch out for include: 

• neglecting non-functional testing for performance, integration or security
• skipping integration testing when APIs and third-party software are part of the application
• relying on incomplete code-based unit and integration testing
• skipping manual exploratory testing for complex user scenarios, edge cases, usability or accessibility testing
• creating ambiguous or fluid requirements that change up to release. 

Testers don’t skip testing by choice, but rather because there’s no time left. In the same way, developers don’t create code-based tests because they are out of time or another task has a higher priority.

Fluid requirements that are never solidified will cause a host of issues. In the short term, it causes a potential testing gap based on when a test was created and executed. The integration of AI-driven features further complicates these gaps, as AI systems often fail in ways synthetic testing cannot catch, requiring a shift toward real-world validation. In the long term, it creates false defect reports, coding and testing rework, and confusion.

Tips for managing Agile testing gaps

The first step to avoid Agile testing gaps is creating a test strategy that includes input from both developers and testers. Define the resources, testing types and who’s responsible for each. The strategy can even be a simple checklist that describes what testing is done and by whom. While the plan will likely change with each iteration, it is useful for keeping team members on the same page.

Balance testing by prioritizing test execution, test case development and defect tracking. Analyze developer-based test automation and understand the test coverage so time isn’t wasted on creating duplicate tests. 

Plan for your manual, automated and crowdtesting strategies. Define which tests cover what functionality or testing type. For example, manual tests are for continuous exploratory testing, test automation executes basic functional regression testing and an Applause testing team gathers feedback from real potential customers and evaluates the validity of AI outputs.

Ensure performance, integration and security are tested. If testing is not performed internally, consider using an external service. Schedule testing throughout the development cycle to reduce last-minute defect fixes that destabilize the codebase. 

Continuous testing provides ongoing test coverage. Make it work by altering test types or techniques. For example, if test automation is unreliable, then switch to manual exploratory testing. Or, optionally, use an AI tool to predict defects. If possible, do both for improved test coverage. 

Encourage and support communication and collaboration to reduce confusion. It’s essential that the team shares the same understanding of the application’s functionality and purpose. Communication and collaboration are key to reducing churn and keeping the project moving forward.

On top of all that, always have a Plan B. If the team’s test strategy is derailed by schedule reductions, flaky test automation or changed requirements, a few backup testing plans can save the day. Agile testing is flexible, and your testing strategy should be too. Create test strategies that initiate testing early and often. Keep up with developers. Test collaboratively as much as possible. 

Reaching Agile testing maturity 

Like any Agile methodology, Agile testing improves by continuously learning, adapting and improving processes. Take advantage of reviews and retrospectives to make improvements to the team’s Agile testing processes. Work toward reliable test automation that’s balanced with manual testing and crowdtesting. Balanced testing supports improved test coverage, helping teams reduce the likelihood of defects when combined with real-world validation.

Mature Agile testing teams keep the customer a priority. It’s customer satisfaction that makes an application successful. Understanding how customers use and interact with application functions makes all the difference. Design exploratory tests around those customer workflows. Consider measuring application quality based on customer satisfaction scores, not defect numbers, for a more useful metric evaluation. 

When producing quality applications, consider partnering with Applause to address gaps in your testing strategies. Applause provides real-user feedback on AI and digital products in real-world conditions, helping teams surface insights and reduce the likelihood of releasing software with critical defects that synthetic testing often misses. A crowdtesting team can vet the application under real world conditions, designed around your specific needs. Plus Applause’s internal experts guide the efforts to help you realize the value of the approach. Customers expect high performance, security and full functionality all day, every day — and that’s what Applause aims to provide for its customers.

Teams use real devices of every type and platform, work under different network conditions and a variety of operating systems. Applause’s extensive community of testers can help instill confidence that your applications meet all of your customer’s needs.