Agile testing is a software testing practice that follows the principles of agile software development. Agile testing involves all members of a cross-functional agile team, with special expertise contributed by testers, to ensure delivering the business value desired by the customer at frequent intervals, working at a sustainable pace. With Agile, testing becomes an integral part of the core software development and actively participates though out the software coding process. Agile testing involves testing from the customer perspective as early as possible, testing early and often as code becomes available and stable enough from module/unit level testing.
Why Agile testing?
Many teams using these waterfalls or other traditional testing models find that as the product grows, the amount of testing grows exponentially–and Quality Assurance invariably struggles to keep up. Agile Testing saves time and money which is the main benefit for organisations today. Clients can more readily understand the approximate cost of each feature, which improves decision making and determines priorities. With Agile Testing automated tests are fully leveraged to implement Regression; application delivery is accelerated and changing priorities effectively managed.
Another important advantage is that Agile Testing increases team productivity and project visibility and better addresses the business/technical aspects of the requirements with overall team alignment preventing misunderstandings. Test and development teams work closely and interact with each other quite often on a daily basis. This process includes everybody in the team (managers, developers, and customers), not only testers. With face to face communication they can more easily communicate which is much better than digging into lengthy documents. It encourages close coordination and builds mutual trust among stakeholders and the net result is higher productivity.
Does Agile testing work in a regulated environment?
For the past several decades, Waterfall has been the leading software development methodology in heavily regulated IT environments. However times are changing and now there is the push for getting more products to market and getting them there faster and much more cost effectively.
Agile testing works in all kind of environments including regulated environments. The key to make it succeed is to check if the organization follows some basic requirements needed. A not culturally flexible organisation which embraces having two separate teams of developers and testers -that don’t interact in any case- makes continuous feedback impossible.
Although Agile is not a silver bullet, its iterative nature benefits the user with continuous feedback and refinement. The banking industry can leverage the success and time to market experienced in the software industry while still mitigating risk and ensuring compliance. Agile practices can complement the need to meet regulatory requirements. Validation and verification should be important during the process and refined through each sprint. You can incorporate a regulatory validation process into your sprint activity. This way, you aren’t risking waiting until the end of a waterfall only to find out you can’t release your software because it isn’t compliant after all.
Is it possible for Banks to successfully adopt Agile approaches?
The first step to implementing Agile in heavily regulated environments involves initiating a cultural shift and helping stakeholders embrace change. Many existing programs in these industries were built on very rigid and formally documented processes that align with the Waterfall model. We have to stop supporting the claim that Agile can’t work on banks because of their more conservative nature. The major problem when it comes in banks adopting Agile testing is the strong hierarchical complicated system which was established many years now. By flattening this hierarchy and integrating a balanced team of developers and testers, the percentage of Agile testing’s success is huge. It may seem like a long journey, but it’s better to start early in a consistent base.
Start by creating a culture of success by starting with small changes and early “wins” to further engage stakeholders and increase morale and then gradually move towards more complex tasks to further demonstrate Agile’s benefits. Then, once the team demonstrates consecutive successes, Agile’s transparency and efficiencies will become the impetus for full acceptance.
How Validata addresses these issues?
Validata Quality Suite has been developed with Agile and Cloud in mind, with built-in native integrations that allows true, real-time data flows to connect QA and DevOps. It is suited for even the largest banks, whose teams are dealing with lengthy test cycles and are seeking to create an environment of continuous app testing and continuous delivery with an agile management framework.
By implementing the Agile philosophy and enforcing full lifecycle automation, we enable QA organizations to yield just in-time process improvement metrics, and establish continuous feedback and learning mechanisms that reduce errors and accelerate time-to-value, enabling the digital transformation.
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