More Than a Tester:Involving QA throughout the Agile Process

@PaulFMeeker

Raise your handif…• You are a QA engineer• You do automation• You are a QA manager• You are a BA• You are a developer• Anyone willing to share why they came to this session?

Overview• Who am I? • Everyone is a product owner• QA involvement in all stages• I’m a QA person, what should I do?• I’m a QA manager, what should I do?• Q and A

Hi, I’m PaulI am a BAUXUIWDPOSMPMQARMHDMoPD

Manager of Product DevelopmentFranklin University

Mostly a Product Owner

Everyone as Product OwnerThe Product Owner (PO) is the member of the team responsible for defining Stories and prioritizing the Team Backlog so as to streamline the execution of program priorities, while maintaining conceptual and technical integrity of the Features or components the team is responsible for.

Everyone as Product OwnerThe Product Owner (PO) is the member of the team responsible for defining facilitating the definition of Stories and prioritizing the Team Backlog in collaboration with the team and stakeholders so as to streamline the execution of program priorities, while helping the team to maintain maintaining conceptual and technical integrity of the Features or components the team is responsible for.

My job is to facilitate open communication, transparency, and promote ownership of the product for all team members.

QA engineers are Product Owners• They know the product • They know the customer• (in our environment, they are first line of defense for support tickets escalated

to our team)

• They should know the direction and vision of the product• They should be advocates for the user

QuestionWhat are some ways in your environment that QA are or could be product owners?

QA involvement in all stages• Pre-development• Roadmap• Prototyping / brainstorming• User stories

• 3 Amigos• Acceptance Criteria• Gherkin• Define and refine (backlog grooming)

QA involvement in all stages• During Development• Gherkin• Automation (see Jeremy Davis at 3:05)• Manual and exploratory testing• Advocate for the user in testing

QA involvement in all stages• Post-development (post deployment)• Training?• Tickets?• Getting feedback• QA/BA cross functionality

QuestionWhat are some ways in your environment that QA are or should be involved in the following? • Pre-development• During development• Post-development

I’m a QA Engineer, how to I get more involved?• Take ownership!• Push to be more involved• Invite yourself to meetings• Tell your manager• Ask questions• Be a part of the conversation

• Other ideas?

I’m a manager of QA, how do I get them involved?• Get them into as much of the SDLC as possible• “From inception to support”• First job is quality—always the priority• More involvement in this way will lead to higher quality in the end

• Other ideas?

BenefitsWhat do you think could be benefits of this mindset?

DrawbacksWhat do you think are some drawbacks to this mindset?

General Q and A