In today’s world, every organization wants its software or application to execute complicated processes easily. So, Scrum Testing adopts an Agile-based Scrum Methodology to achieve these organizational goals that help maintain various aspects of the software.In this article, we will learn:
Before we delve deep into scrum testing, it's worthwhile to understand a few terms unique to the topic.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a subset of an agile environment. It’s a strategy that enables the development team to focus on all the aspects of the software like performance, quality, usability, complexity, etc. It includes short release cycles with an adjustable scope known as sprints that deal with abruptly changing requirements of the software.
Scrum Testing uses this scrum framework to achieve scrum goals. It is done to check the ability of the software to execute a complicated task.
#2 Important Terminologies of Scrum Testing:
Before we dive deep into the Scrum Testing process, it is important to understand a few terms associated with it like:
ROLES: The scrum process involves three key roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team (development team). Each of these is assigned a separate responsibility, which is discussed in detail below:
Product Owner: It is the person who has the following responsibilities:
Determine the features that should be in a product release.
Prioritize the product features according to market value and profitability.
Decide whether to accept or to reject the work results.
Scrum Master: Scrum Master is the coordinator of the product development team who:
Looks after the team and manages team productivity.
Invites team to daily scrum and planning meetings to know what is going on.
Ensures that the scrum testing best practices are carried out.
Scrum Team:: It is a team of designers, developers, testers, etc. who work together to deliver the desired product.
ARTIFACTS: Scrum artifacts are the by products designed during the software development process, which provides prospects for inspection and adoption of software. Basic artifacts used in the scrum process are:
Sprints: It is a time-boxed period (time-frame) in which the scrum team has to complete its work. It contains what is to be built.
User Stories: It contains a brief description of the functionalities of the software under test (SUT).
Product Backlog: It is a collection of user stories that is prepared and managed by a product owner.
Release Backlog: In this, the Product Owner communicates with the Scrum Master to decide user stories that should be targeted on high priority for release.
Sprint Backlog: It is a list of tasks (user stories) that should be completed in a sprint.
CEREMONIES: The Scrum Process involves ceremonies or events that ensure everyone (product owner, scrum master, and development team) is in sync. It also helps the team, to get the work done in a structured manner. Testing activities that are conducted by the testers in Scrum testing are:
Sprint Planning: This planning is needed before the beginning of the sprint and is done with the collaboration of the whole team:
Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Scrum team.
The product owner defines the product backlog items and gives a sprint goal.
Scrum master coordinates the meeting.
Scrum Team plans the work to be done and estimates the time to achieve that sprint.
The purpose of the Sprint planning is to establish a sprint goal and choose the user stories that support them.
Daily Scrum: It is a short meeting hosted by Scrum master that is done every day to track the development of software. During this meeting, each member has to answer a few questions like:
How much work will you do today?
How much work did you do yesterday?
Is there any issue/defect that prevents you from doing your work?
These questions help in improving the communication between the development team.
Sprint Review: This meeting is conducted at the end of the sprint, between the Scrum team and stakeholders, to discuss the work done in the last sprint and identify necessary changes required to make it more optimized. Below given are the steps performed to manage the sprint review meeting:
Start the meeting and invite the stakeholders.
The product owner presents the Sprint Review List.
The development team presents product increments.
The product owner takes feedback from the stakeholders.
After feedback, the product backlog is refined that contains an item for the next sprint.
Sprint Retrospective: It is performed just after the Sprint Review meeting. Here, the scrum master helps the scrum team to improve its development process by discussing questions like:
What went well in the sprint?
What went wrong in the sprint?
What can be improved in the next sprint?
#3 Test Reporting in Scrum:
Two test reporting metrics that help the team to track their progress and improve the future version of the product are:
Burn Down Chart: It is a tool that provides the graphical representation of the outstanding work with respect to time. Here, the remaining work is represented on the y-axis and the time on the x-axis that helps us track how much work has been done.
Velocity Graph: This graph determines how much work a team can handle in a sprint. It also helps the product owner to identify how many sprints a team can achieve.
#4 Advantages of Scrum Testing:
Some of the advantages offered by Scrum Testing are:
It helps build software to execute complicated tasks.
Ensures the quality, usability, and performance of the software.
Increases Return On Investment (ROI).
It decreases time-to-market due to incremental deliveries.
It increases customer satisfaction.
It focusses on project control through meetings.
Helps in Unit testing of the product.
#5 Challenges of Scrum Testing:
Few hurdles faced by scrum team while performing scrum testing are:
The scope of testing unexpectedly changes due to changing requirements.
Daily scrum meetings may take too much time that frustrates the team members.
Adopting this framework in a huge team is very complex and challenging.
Scrum Testing Infographics:
Conclusion:
Scrum Testing follows sequences that are repeated continuously to build quality software that can handle complicated tasks. Moreover, it keeps the team focussed on project goals, maintains transparency, and maximizes productivity.
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