The role of a tester in an Agile team

The role of a tester in an Agile team includes activities that generate and provide feedback not only on test status, test progress, and product quality, but also on process quality. 

These activities include: 

• Understanding, implementing, and updating the test strategy 
• Measuring and reporting test coverage across all applicable coverage dimensions 
• Ensuring proper use of testing tools 
• Configuring, using, and managing test environments and test data 
• Reporting defects and working with the team to resolve them 
• Coaching other team members in relevant aspects of testing 
• Ensuring the appropriate testing tasks are scheduled during release and iteration planning 
• Actively collaborating with developers and business stakeholders to clarify requirements, especially in terms of testability, consistency, and completeness 
• Participating proactively in team retrospectives, suggesting and implementing improvements 

Everyone is responsible for quality 

Within an Agile team, each team member is responsible for product quality and plays a role in performing test-related tasks. 

Test-related organisational risks 

Agile organisations may encounter some test-related organisational risks: 

• Testers work so closely to developers that they lose the appropriate tester mindset 
• Testers become tolerant of or silent about inefficient, ineffective, or low-quality practices within the team 
• Testers cannot keep pace with the incoming changes in time-constrained iterations 

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