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Role of a Tester in an Agile Team

Tester in agile is no different from that of traditional tester but in agile, he has to play multiple roles apart from just testing the software. In this post, we are going to discuss about the role of a tester in a project following a scrum life cycle.
To make a project successful, testing plays a vital role. In agile, the main idea is whole team approach where testers, developers and business representatives work together as a team. Below are some of the main roles or best practices followed by team members in an agile (Scrum) environment:




  1. Cross-Functional: Every team has team members with a specific skill set which they bring to the table. The team work together on Test strategy, Test plan, Test execution and evaluation. Quality is a shared responsibility. 
  2. Self-Organizing: There are no leads in Agile. Team is self organized, meaning every team member knows and understands his responsibility and work accordingly. 
  3. Co-located: In most of the cases, testers, developers and product owner sit together to plan the project iterations. They are located in the same area. 
  4. Collaborative: Tester has to collaborate with different teams, namely, stake holders, developers, product owner and scrum master. This is a whole team approach where communication is the key to success. 
  5. Empowered: When it comes to taking decisions, whole team is involved whether it is related to design or testing. Testers, developers and scrum master collaborate with product owner and other teams if need arises. 
  6. Committed: Tester should be committed to analyze the software behavior according to the expected functionality and should ask questions whenever needed. He should know the users and customers and test the software accordingly.
  7. Transparent: Every team member knows what other team member is doing. Every task and progress is visible on the Agile task board. 
  8. Credible: Tester should take the credibility of the test strategy and the process to gain the trust of stakeholders. This can be done by being transparent about the testing process and keeping stakeholders informed about the strategies.
  9. Open to Feedback: Retrospective meetings are conducted after every iteration to make sure that we learn from our failures and successes. Tester should always be open to feedback and work on them.
  10. Resilient: Tester should know how to accommodate changes in testing when a requirement gets change. 
These were 10 major roles of a tester in an agile project. I have referred these from the syllabus of ISTQB Agile Foundation level certification extension.



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