An increasing number of companies have already started shifting to agile development methodologies to implement their software. It is quite a shift from the traditional development to the more flexible, less documented agile approach.

Now with the global pandemic, more and more companies have shifted to remote working which has promoted an agile environment even more.

Agile methods have many test management activities built into them and it is changing the test management nature. This impacts the role of a test manager and has raised questions about the role of a test manager in agile organizations.

Agile’s Impact on Testing

Firstly, in Agile methods, testing is embedded in the development process and most software developers are trained to write test cases before or alongside the code they do. Each feature has a set of unit tests that ensures that the program does what it is supposed to do. This makes it easier to identify problems as the product evolves over time. This is an important capability of the testing as the software product lifecycle can be dynamic and many factors can impact performance and vulnerability. Secondly, the testers are mostly a part of the development team so that they can perform testing as soon as a feature is completed. This provides quick and closer collaboration. Short feedback loops also make sure that the problems are found sooner, preventing further problems. This also allows the developers to fix the problems as they are working on a feature and is much more top-of-mind at that time.

Testers in agile organizations often use test case management software, which allows them to write and execute automated tests as well against the user interface and application programming interface.

These test case management software help agile teams to test the application at a faster pace. Initially, manual testing proves to be quick, but later it can halt the development as the weight of the use cases increases over time. Manual testing can make the interactive releases impossible or they are released with bugs.

How does this affect the test management?

Another important aspect of the agile methodologies is the impact on the test management culture. In traditional development methods, command and control are the most used words but in agile, the culture needs to be shifted towards collaboration, leadership, and empowerment of the teams.

In traditional development methods, test managers were responsible for creating the test strategy, product risk analysis, testing plans, testing estimations, and resources. But in Agile, we need to consider the following:

Planning and estimations are a team responsibility.

Providing a detailed risk analysis upfront is not possible.

Development teams require a degree of freedom, so extensive strategies and plans are not possible.

Considering the above points, the role of test management has changed. It focuses more on human resource management and how to get the right tester in the right team. This can be achieved by knowing the tester needs, so the test manager needs to find ways to get the necessary information from the agile teams in order to have a full understanding of the testing process.

Keep in mind that a lot of the previous management responsibility shifts to the teams. This requires a high rate of trust in the people and keeping away from micromanagement. So management needs to let go of some of the control and the people in the teams have more responsibilities and need to deal with this. Mind that not everyone will feel comfortable with this, so make sure to pick the right people for the different roles in the team. Next to that: not every team needs the same type of tester.

Overall impact of testing

Test managers need to adjust and adapt to the new context: Agile. The quick and changing world of Agile development requires a more programmatic approach of testing. No upfront long documentation and planning is needed, instead small pieces of features are tested right away.

Automation is a key part of test management and testers need to have more technical knowledge and communication skills.

In conclusion, it is all about people. Investing in the right people with the right skills will get you the results you are looking for Test managers only need to find those right people.