How do you incorporate testing and quality assurance into sprint planning?

1 Testing and quality assurance goals

The first step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance goals. These are the outcomes that you want to achieve with your testing and quality assurance activities, such as finding and fixing defects, improving performance, enhancing usability, ensuring compliance, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance goals should align with your sprint goals, which are the business value and user benefits that you want to deliver in your sprint. You should also consider the risks and dependencies that might affect your testing and quality assurance activities, such as technical complexity, data availability, external factors, and so on.

2 Testing and quality assurance tasks

The next step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance tasks. These are the specific actions that you need to take to achieve your testing and quality assurance goals, such as writing test cases, executing test scripts, performing code reviews, conducting user acceptance testing, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance tasks should be broken down into manageable and measurable units that can be assigned to your team members and tracked in your sprint backlog. You should also estimate the effort and time required for each testing and quality assurance task, and prioritize them according to their importance and urgency.

3 Testing and quality assurance roles

The third step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance roles. These are the responsibilities and expectations that you have for your team members and stakeholders regarding your testing and quality assurance activities, such as who will write, execute, review, and approve the tests, who will report, analyze, and resolve the issues, who will communicate and collaborate with the customers and users, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance roles should be clear and agreed upon by everyone involved in your sprint, and reflect the skills, expertise, and availability of your team members and stakeholders.

4 Testing and quality assurance tools

The fourth step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance tools. These are the software and hardware resources that you need to support your testing and quality assurance activities, such as test automation frameworks, test management platforms, bug tracking systems, performance testing tools, usability testing tools, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance tools should be selected and configured according to your testing and quality assurance goals, tasks, and roles, and integrated with your development environment and workflow. You should also ensure that your testing and quality assurance tools are accessible, reliable, and secure for your team members and stakeholders.

5 Testing and quality assurance metrics

The fifth step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance metrics. These are the indicators that you use to measure and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your testing and quality assurance activities, such as test coverage, defect density, defect resolution time, user satisfaction, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance metrics should be relevant and meaningful for your sprint goals, and aligned with your project and organizational objectives. You should also establish the baseline, target, and threshold values for each testing and quality assurance metric, and monitor and report them throughout your sprint.

6 Testing and quality assurance feedback

The sixth and final step in incorporating testing and quality assurance into your sprint planning is to define your testing and quality assurance feedback. This is the process of collecting, analyzing, and acting on the information and insights that you get from your testing and quality assurance activities, such as test results, issue reports, user feedback, and so on. Your testing and quality assurance feedback should be timely, transparent, and constructive for your team members and stakeholders, and help you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your sprint. You should also use your testing and quality assurance feedback to improve your testing and quality assurance practices, processes, and outcomes in your future sprints.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?