Six Things to Avoid in Software Testing on Agile Projects
With the emphasis on cross-functional teams, are testers still valuable on agile teams? The answer: Absolutely! Testing helps consider the full spectrum of quality attributes by bringing a unique perspective of evaluating various user interactions with the application. Insufficient testing may allow severe defects to pass into production, causing financial loss or even bankruptcy. Knowing how to leverage testing to gain the greatest rewards can be tricky as there are many things you can do that appear to be equally important—and likewise many things to avoid. For example, it’s important not to lose manual testing skills even when you emphasize test automation. Join Madhu Das as she discusses the balance she discovered when leading in the world of agile software testing. Through stories from the trenches at multiple large organizations, Madhu shares her lessons learned and explores how to recover when things do not always go as expected. Leave with six things you should not do in software testing!
Madhumita Das, who goes by Madhu, is passionate about QA. She started her lifelong commitment to the software industry in 1995 as a software developer and moved to the QA arena in 1998. For more than two decades now, Madhu has worked as a developer, tester, manager, and agile enabler in various testing areas—automation, functional, performance, security, and accessibility. As a manager of both small and large teams, Madhu has worked with companies including CenturyLink, Pearson, and now AVP, QA at the financial company Great-West: Financial Empower Retirement. She lives in Colorado with her husband and teenage daughter.