Agile testing is a software testing practice that follows the principles of an agile software development. It
is an iterative software development methodology where requirements keep changing as per the customer
needs. Testing is done in parallel to the development of an iterative model. Test team receives frequent
code changes from the development team for testing an application.

Agile manifesto defines 4 key points:

i. Individuals and interactions over process and tools

ii. Working software over comprehensive documentation

iii. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

iv. Responding to change over following a plan

1. Highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of business valuable
software

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development

3. Deliver working software frequently

4. Business people and developers must work together daily without transparency throughout the project

5. Build projects around motivated individuals

6. The best form of communication is to do face-to-face conversation

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress

8. Able to maintain a constant pace

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence

10. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential

11. Self-organizing teams

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly

Scrum consists of three main roles:

Product Owner: Product Owner usually represents the Client and acts as a point of contact from Client side.
The one who prioritizes the list of Product Backlogs which Scrum Team should finish and release.

Scrum Master: Scrum Master acts as a facilitator to the Scrum Development Team. Clarifies the queries and
organizes the team from distractions and teach the team how to use scrum and also concentrates on Return
on Investment (ROI). Responsible for managing the sprint.

Scrum Development Team: Developer’s, QA’s. Who develops the product. Scrum development team decides
the effort estimation to complete a Product Backlog Item.

Scrum Team: A cross-functional, self-organizing group of dedicated people (Group of Product Owner,
Business Analyst, Developer’s and QA’s). Recommended size of a scrum team is 7 plus or minus

In Agile methodology, change in requirement is possible. It’s not like other traditional methodologies where
the requirements are locked down at the requirement phase. Every team member should be ready to handle
the changes in the project.

The team should work closely with the Product Owner to understand the scope of requirement change and to
negotiate to keep the requirement changes to a minimum or to adopt those changes in next sprint. Based on
the requirement changes Test Team could update the Test Plan and Test Cases to achieve the deadlines.
The team should understand the risk in requirement change and prepare a contingency plan. It is a best
practice not to go for the automation process until requirements are finalized.

It is one of the common Agile Testing Interview Questions.

In Agile Methodology, testing is not a phase like other traditional models. It is an activity parallel to
development in the Agile. The time slot for the testing is less in the Agile compared to the traditional
models. The testing team works on small features in Agile whereas the test team works on a complete
application after development in the traditional models.

i. When the client is not so clear on requirements

ii. When the client expects quick releases

iii. When the client doesn’t give all the requirements at a time

In Scrum, the project is divided into Sprints. Each Sprint has a specified time line (2 weeks to 1 month). This
timeline will be agreed by a Scrum Team during the Sprint Planning Meeting. Here, User Stories are split
into different modules. The end result of every Sprint should be a potentially shippable product.

Product Backlog: Product Backlog is a repository where the list of Product Backlog Items stored and
maintained by the Product Owner. The list of Product Backlog Items are prioritized by the Product Owner
as high and low and also could re-prioritize the product backlog constantly.

Sprint Backlog: Group of user stories which scrum development team agreed to do during the current sprint
(Committed Product Backlog items). It is a subset of the product backlog.

Burn Down Charts provide proof that the project is on track or not. Both burn-up and burn-down charts are
graphs used to track the progress of a project.

Burn-up charts represent how much work has been completed in a project whereas Burn-down chart
represents the remaining work left in a project.

There are four popularly used burn down charts in Agile.

i. Product burn down chart

ii. Sprint burn down chart

iii. Release burn down chart

iv. Defect burn down chart

A graph which shows how many Product Backlog Items (User Stories) implemented/not implemented.

A graph which shows how many Sprints implemented/not implemented by Scrum Team.

A graph which shows List of releases still pending, which Scrum Team have planned.

A graph which shows how many defects identified and fixed.

Daily Stand-up Meeting is a daily routine meeting. It brings everyone up to date on the information and helps
the team to stay organized.

Each team member reports to the peers the following:

1. What did he/she do yesterday

2. What are the impediments faced

3. What he/she will do today

In general, it’s not a recorded meeting. Reporting will be between peers not to Scrum Master or Product
Owner. It is normally time boxed to a maximum of 15 minutes. It is aka 15 Minute Stand-up Meeting

The first step of Scrum is Sprint Planning Meeting where the entire Scrum Team attends. Here the Product
Owner selects the Product Backlog Items (User Stories) from the Product Backlog. Most important User
Stories at the top of the list and least important User Stories at the bottom. Scrum Development Team
decides and provides the effort estimation.

In the Sprint Review Meeting, Scrum Development Team presents a demonstration of a potentially shippable
product. Product Owner declares which items are completed and not completed. Product Owner adds the
additional items to the product backlog based on the stakeholder’s feedback.

Scrum Team meets again after the Sprint Review Meeting and documents the lessons learned in the earlier
sprint such as “What went well”, “What could be improved”. It helps the Scrum Team to avoid the
mistakes in the next Sprints.

A task board is a dashboard which illustrates the progress that an agile team is making in achieving their
sprint goals.

In general, the columns used in a task board are as follows

i. User Story: Actual Business Requirement (Description)

ii. To Do: All the tasks of current sprint

iii. In Progress: Any task being worked on

iv. To Verify: Tasks pending for verification

v. Done: Tasks which are completed