Rigidity, delayed updates, or slow time-to-market - these problems can turn software testing into a bottleneck to the development pipeline and eventually a hindrance to the company’s overall growth. This is where Agile methodology enters the scene, offering a flexible and responsive testing solution.
Since its introduction, agile principles and practices have been popularly adopted among development teams who aim for fast, effective delivery and exceptional software experiences. This article will walk you through how agile methodology is applied in software testing, its benefits, and best practices for testers.
Agile testing is a software testing approach following the best practices of Agile Development (iteration and collaboration) at its core. The testing process intertwines with software development instead of being separated into 2 different phases.
The existence of testing at every step throughout the development cycle asks testers to work in tandem with developers for delivery at high speed, frequency, and quality.
Agile is a development methodology that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, customer feedback, and iterative progress. It was introduced as an alternative to traditional project management approaches, such as the Waterfall model, which often proved too rigid and slow to adapt to changing requirements.
Agile's roots are found in the Agile Manifesto, created in 2001 by a group of software developers who outlined four core values and twelve principles to guide Agile development.
Here are the core values of Agile as written in the Agile Manifesto:
“What difference does it make?” you might ask. The benefits are substantial when once-isolated teams collapse into a single entity. Here are several major advantages:
Before agile, software development was mainly conducted in Waterfall methodology - a step-by-step approach where testing takes place at the endpoint.
As we face rapid digitalization, there appear to be many setbacks in Waterfall testing, calling for a more flexible way of practice. Let’s dive into the differences between the 2 methods.
|
Criteria |
Waterfall testing |
Agile testing |
|
Characteristics |
Testing happens at the end of the development cycle. This design structure is sequential and relatively rigid, as little can be changed during the project. |
Agile is an incremental and flexible approach. Testing is performed in parallel with the development, allowing room for change. |
|
PIC |
Testers work independently with developers. Everyone’s roles are straightforward and strictly defined. Quality assurance is at the hands of testers. |
Testers work alongside developers toward the end goal of delivering the best software possible to customers. |
|
Approach |
The waterfall model manifests a project mindset that prioritizes finishing the project. |
Agile is all about the product and customers. Teams receive continuous feedback and adapt to satisfy customers’ demands. |
|
Process |
Acceptance and regression testing are performed only at the end. |
Acceptance and regression testing is implemented repeatedly after each iteration. |
|
Application |
Most fitted for small and fixed-price projects with a stable development environment as it is easier to manage risk and less costly. |
More efficient for larger projects or non-fixed contracts. |
Read More: Agile vs Waterfall: A Detailed Comparison
Below is the complete life cycle of an agile testing process - a series of 5 stages
The beauty of Agile is that these steps are repeatedly integrated to ensure that applications are updated following ongoing feedback and requirements. Let's look at each stage in-depth:
Purpose:
Purpose:
Purpose:
Purpose:
Purpose:
In Agile practice, testing is an activity, not a role, which means that everyone shares the responsibility of meeting goals and quality assurance. Testers are no longer kept in the dark. The whole team approach puts collaboration at the forefront, with everyone on board involved in the entire process from start to finish of a development cycle.
Of course, there are specific job descriptions (or specializations) for testers and developers, but at the end of the day, the whole team strives for the same goal of delivering high-quality products. With that in mind, the role of testers does not stop just at logging bugs but helping to improve the overall delivery process. It can include:
Upon integrating agile testing, QA teams not only follow the practices of early and iterative testing but also have to adopt a new product-based and customer-oriented mindset. Rather than a set of rules and regulations, agile is about the principles that promote streamlined continuity, adaptability, and whole-team communication in delivering great end results to the customers.
Continuous testing is a software testing approach that involves executing automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline. It aims to provide rapid feedback on the business risks associated with a software release candidate.
Continuous testing is integrated into the Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) processes, ensuring that every code change is automatically tested to identify any potential defects or issues early in the development lifecycle.
Continuous testing implies that testing is performed in parallel with software development as a built-in component of the delivery pipeline. While manual testing can be exhaustive and infeasible in such contexts, automated testing is of great help by enabling testers to run more testing backlog, improving the test build's overall quality.
Testing should start early and happen frequently, not after sprint completion. The best time to automate tests is alongside code writing. Automation should be part of the "definition of done" and included in user stories and sprint planning. Delaying automation for quick manual testing may seem efficient but often leads to long-term issues with regression testing in Agile.
Read More: Top 15 List of Automation Testing Tools | Latest Uptiondate in 2025
Various types of testing are developed to support the agile testing processes. Below are some of the most commonly practiced ones.
Communication is key in agile, but facilitating undisrupted communication among parties is not always an easy task. For this reason, BDD was born.
BDD testing adopts an Agile approach to software testing, focusing on creating test cases in a clear and understandable language accessible even to non-technical individuals. Its primary aim is to enhance collaboration between the technical and business sides of an organization.
Gherkin language, a key component of BDD, is a specialized business-readable language designed to outline system behaviors and scenarios. It employs three fundamental statements: Given, When, and Then. Each statement serves a distinct purpose:
Once system behavior is described in Gherkin, BDD testers transform it into a test script that computers can execute.
This testing framework focuses on the behavior of the product and user acceptance criteria. The Cucumber tool is often used together with BDD to automate tests in the natural English language. This makes it possible for anyone involved in the project to understand the conversation, regardless of their technical skills.
Read More: What is BDD Testing?
Acceptance tests are functional tests that define how acceptable all the software’s performance is to the end-users. Before the release of a product, it should pass this final test.
Similar to BDD, ATDD gathers involved parties to work out user stories, clarify business requirements and calculate risks before any implementation of the corresponding coding. In this way, test cases are built upon the perspective of users. The code followed will answer the question: “Will the software function as it’s supposed to?”.
Agile environment asks for continuous changes, which in turn requires frequent testing. Exploratory testing comes into this development flow by encouraging testers to keep constantly discovering, learning, and executing.
This approach grants testers the freedom to experience and explore software’s functions from the point of view of end users. Testers can utilize their curiosity and core strengths to make decisions about what to test on their own accord.
Learn More: What is Exploratory Testing? A Complete Guide
Listing these kinds of testing doesn’t mean that an application has to go through all of them. Testing is context-dependent, indicating that based on the situation, testers have to make decisions on what to test, what technique should be used, and when and how it should be used.
Lisa Crispin's “agile testing quadrants” concept is the tool that helps answer the above questions.
The process is divided into 4 quadrants, each containing types of testing best suited for different business situations. This matrix also suggests whether the team should apply manual or automated testing in their strategy.
It should be noted that the four quadrants do not imply any sequence or order teams have to work through. They simply provide a taxonomy for agile testers to plan their testing strategy more accurately with the right testing method, technique, and resources.
Traditional testing commonly follows a heavy documentation-based process. However, in agile testing, the emphasis is placed on delivering software over comprehensive documentation, which allows testers to be more flexible and responsive to shifting requirements.
Therefore, rather than mapping out activities in detail, teams should create a test strategy that provides an overall approach, guidelines, and objectives.
While there isn’t a single formula to follow considering variants in teams' backgrounds and resources, some standard elements should be factored into an agile testing strategy.
No matter what testing methodology you use, a test strategy needs to define the testing approach, processes, and roles so that all members can get clarity on the project without any silos.
Developers and QE teams can have a discussion with each other about the following items:
Read More: How to Build A Successful DevOps Testing Strategy for Agile Teams
Test automation is an essential part of agile testing. With Agile test automation, continuous integration can be facilitated in a more straightforward manner.
In comparison, manual testing shows less efficiency in handling problems such as extensive test coverage, a tremendous amount of regression testing, and pressure on delivering software quality promptly.
It is critical for Agile testers to ensure a high degree of automation for continuous feedback and iteration whenever the code is changed.
Delivering at speed in a constrained time frame means that resources should be estimated and allocated wisely for the team to focus on the proper priority. Tests can be sequenced in the order of associated risks, that is, tasks with higher risks require more attention and effort, and vice versa.
Performing risk analysis before any test execution can optimize the effectiveness and bring out the essence of agile testing.
Finding the right automation tool is a crucial component to starting your automation journey. Katalon Studio can be the tech piece that fits into your agile testing strategy by satisfying all the requirements above - effective planning mechanism, efficient prioritization, and readiness evaluation.
Transitioning into an agile QA doesn’t have to be perplexing or challenging with Katalon - an end-to-end quality management platform that requires a short learning curve, providing software testers with an easy-to-deploy solution. Discover how Agile testers can leverage automation and efficiency with Katalon.
Let's take a closer look at how Katalon TestOps operates. The Planning tab will show you the consolidated results for those tests. In other words, it will present the latest status of each test, independent of the number of test executions you make with them.
By then, you can see the overview of your release status, which releases are ready and which are not, along with the total number of test cases and test runs linked to that release. This gives you a presentable picture to decide the readiness of a product release.
Interested? Here's a quick demo of how Katalon works:
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1. Which is the preferred way of testing in Agile?
Continuous testing is preferred in Agile, using a mix of manual and automated methods to ensure quality throughout the development cycle.
2. How does the Agile life cycle affect testing?
Agile's iterative nature ensures testing happens early and frequently during each sprint, enabling rapid feedback and reducing late-stage defects.
3. How do testers overcome the typical testing challenges in Agile?
Testers collaborate closely with developers, use automation to save time, and maintain a flexible test strategy that evolves with sprint priorities.
4. How do you reduce testing time in Agile?
Using test automation, prioritizing critical test cases, and employing tools for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) helps reduce testing time.
5. How do you ensure testing quality in Agile?
By integrating testing into the development process, using automated testing, and maintaining clear communication with the team for continuous improvement.
6. What is a spike in Agile?
A spike is a time-boxed effort to research or explore a problem, technical solution, or uncertainty to better understand requirements and estimate work.
7. Why does Agile use points instead of hours?
Agile uses story points to estimate effort based on complexity and scope, promoting team collaboration and avoiding the rigidity of hour-based estimates.
8. How do you ensure test coverage in Agile?
Test coverage is ensured by creating comprehensive test cases for user stories, using automation, and regularly reviewing coverage metrics during sprints.